


sir, this is a card game

by bestofwaifusbestofwomen



Series: the ✨harry potter cinematic universe✨ [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga), Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS, Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Friendship, Friendship is Magic, Gen, Magical Bullshit, Minor Character Death, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Self-Indulgent, Shadow Realm, Slow Burn, Slow Updates, good kids in harry potter universe trying their best, mostly - Freeform, sorry for my americanisms, thats a yugioh tag now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:20:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 28,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22039216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bestofwaifusbestofwomen/pseuds/bestofwaifusbestofwomen
Summary: “Hey, Yuki! I thought we already had a Dueling club! Aren’t you part of it?” Jordan asked.Jaden shared a wide-eyed look with Joey, who shrugged back. “Uh, well,” he laughed nervously, “‘s not dueling dueling, y’know? We just play Duel Monsters.” The rest of the Gryffindor fourth-years stared at him blankly. “It’s a card game. A...muggle card game.”Eating a rather peaceful breakfast down in the Great Hall, Yugi suddenly felt the need to face-palm and groan.——in which some Good Kids™ go to hogwarts, fall in love, fight in a wizarding war, and play lots and lots of card games.
Relationships: Fudou Yuusei & Fujiki Yuusaku, Mutou Yuugi & Yuuki Juudai | Jaden Yuki & Fudou Yuusei, Tsukumo Yuuma & Sakaki Yuya, but its dueling, its kinda like theyre in the breakfast club
Series: the ✨harry potter cinematic universe✨ [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2001658
Comments: 190
Kudos: 235





	1. (Year 1) Yugi: One friend

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [I have measured out my life with coffee spoons](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11618787) by [Tenka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tenka/pseuds/Tenka). 
  * Inspired by [Assemble! Yu-Tagonists](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1123546) by [driftingstar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/driftingstar/pseuds/driftingstar). 



> in which yugi mutou’s eight year old lookin ass gets put into slytherin, to everyone’s confusion. chaos ensues.

Yugi Mutou was, as always, the tiniest kid in his class of first-years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Really, the only thing that had changed between this scene and his class picture from last year was his pointy black hat and robes and the Solid Gold Puzzle hanging around his neck with a piece of black leather. And, of course, the talking Sorting Hat in the middle of the room, but that was to be expected, seeing as he was at _wizard school_. 

Yugi Mutou was a wizard, and yes, he really _was_ eleven years old, even if he only looked about eight at most. He’s a wizard, he’s eleven, and he was about to wear quite-possibly-the-most-important-hat-he’s-ever-worn-in-his- _life_ to be Sorted into his new House. 

Where he’ll make _friends._

He hasn’t made any new friends since Tea first walked into his Gramps’ shop with a handful of coins and a determination to find the perfect gift for _her_ friend, Miho, when they were six years old. And Tea and Miho were miles away in London while he’s at school in the Scottish Highlands with no telephone, just owl post _and he didn’t even have an owl._

This House was supposed to put him with people that he has things in common with. He wanted to share his Duel Monsters deck with someone his age, who understood the game. He wanted to play chess with someone who’s a good strategist. He wanted to flaunt his poker skills, and have people laugh at his jokes, and have someone to struggle on homework with. He wanted to high-five someone after a job well-done. 

The kids around him get called up one by one to get Sorted. 

Yugi Mutou wanted a _friend_. He made a wish, right then and there, standing slightly petrified in front of Hogwarts’ student body, to the Spirit of the Millenium Puzzle. Gramps had told him that he only gets one wish, and Yugi wished for a friend. 

“Mutou, Yugi!” was finally called, and he started toward the Hat. 

“ _Yo, what’s with his hair?_ ” was the last thing he heard before the Hat settled comfortably around his ears. 

_I like my hair,_ he thought, pouting slightly. _What’s wrong with my hair? Spirit,_ he added halfheartedly, _I wish for friends that like my hair._

_Oh, you’ll have a bit of trouble with that, dear,_ a voice crooned in his head. _It’s quite unique._

“...Spirit? Hello? Or are you the Sorting Hat?” he whispered aloud. 

_Needn’t say anything out loud._ The Hat gave him an unimpressed hum. _But yes, I am indeed the Sorting Hat. No spirits. Well, not_ here _, anyways._ It added as an afterthought, _you’re not very bright, are you?_

_Hey!_

_Well, it’s all here in your head_ , it huffed. _Let’s see… not very bright but has an aptitude for strategy, you_ do _get students like that here every once in a while… and that puzzle you solved seems to have been a tricky one… a hard worker, no doubt, if rather selective about it… a particular dedication to your loved ones and the bonds you share… yes, I do know where to put you… it had better be— Oh? What’s this?_ The Hat laughed, and said to the patiently waiting crowd, “Oh, this _will_ be interesting. SLYTHERIN!”

Yugi— Well. His heart didn’t _sink_ , per se, but when he took off the Sorting Hat he was greeted by some not-so-friendly stares from three-quarters of the room, and as the rich green of the Slytherin House seeped into the hems of his robes the other Slytherins began to hiss questions at each other, side-eying him until he reached an empty space at the end of the table and the other Slytherin first-years don’t even _smile_ at him. His heart didn’t sink, but his hope wilted a bit in his chest. 

_One_ friend.

* * *

“G-give that back!” Yugi reached up on his tip-toes, but the older Gryffindor kid just lifted his Blue Eyes White Dragon card higher. “It’s my Grandpa’s card! P-please!”

“Hmm, let me think about it,” he tapped his chin with the card, and all Yugi can think about for a moment is skin oils and fingerprints and _that’s so_ **_gross_ ** _._ “Nah. But since it’s so important to you, how about I do _this_ instead?” Cackling, the Gryffindor tore the card in two. 

Yugi’s stomach dropped. “ _No!_ ” The halves of the card fluttered to the ground unassumingly. The Gryffindor was still laughing as his heart broke cleanly in half. He gathered the pieces of the card into his hands, alongside the remains of his heart, and wondered what he’s going to tell Gramps. No amount of glue in the world, even the super kind, could fix it. The special wizard tape wouldn’t fix it. 

“Aw, ickle snakie’s crying over his precious card. _Hah!_ ” He smacked himself on the forehead, just about roaring with laughter. “That’s right! A muggleborn Slytherin! He doesn’t know the right spell!”

_...a spell?_

Yugi just managed to make eye-contact with him when a red blur suddenly launched itself into the older student’s stomach with a loud _oof!_ A TKO! With wide eyes, Yugi looked over at the red blur, who was actually just a Gryffindor first-year with a really bad haircut. Had he ever gotten a haircut, Yugi wondered. 

“Serves you right!” The other first-year yelled at the felled older student. “To rip up a Duel Monsters card like that was totally uncool, especially knowing it was important to him!” He glanced at Yugi with furrowed eyebrows, gaze flickering to the space next to him, then nodded. 

Yugi blinked. 

The other first-year knelt down on the floor in front of him and reached out a hand towards the remains of the card. Without meaning to, Yugi flinched back, then, seeing the hurt look on the other’s face, quickly held them out. The strange Gryffindor boy clasped his hand around Yugi’s, and said, earnest to a T, “He mentioned a spell, right? I’ll help you find it, and then we can fix your card!” He beamed, simple and easy as anything. 

Yugi smiled back. “Thank you.”


	2. (Year 1) Jaden: oops

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which Snape is an asshole and Jaden and yugi become Official Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy New Year’s Eve everyone!!! pls enjoy this new chapter!!

_The Potions professor sure is creepy,_ Jaden thought idly, leaning his chin on his hand. He wanted to go back to sleep, but it probably wouldn’t be good form to fall asleep in class on the first day. 

What wouldn’t he do for a good nap…

The boy with the Blue-Eyes, or Yugi as he was actually named, gently nudged him with his elbow, and Jaden was entirely _too sleepy_ to try to figure out why he looked so nervous until Professor Snape--

_BANG!_

\--smacked their table. Jaden jumped. So did Lee Jordan and Joey Wheeler from the next table over, and the Weasley twins, who had been whispering about something or other from the back of the room, smacked their heads together in surprise. Yugi flinched so badly that their cauldron was nearly knocked off the table.

The other side of the room, all dressed in green, was snickering at them. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Weasley twins scowl at them. Jaden’s eyebrows furrowed together. _Hmm._

With one quiet look around the room, Professor Snape silenced them. “A point from Gryffindor. Now that we’ve seen _some_ spark of intelligence from Mr. Yuki, little as it may be, let us continue…”

_Oof, burn!_ Jaden thought, more surprised than insulted _._

“Let us see whether or not you bunch of dunderheads can follow even the most basic of instructions.” The professor flicked his wand at the blackboard at the front of the room, where the steps for the Cure for Boils appeared. “You have until the end of class. Go.”

Yugi and Jaden raised their eyebrows at each other. On the first day?

“Well? _Get to work!_ ”

They both jumped. 

* * *

The potions classroom was deceptively warm once the potions got to cooking. Jaden yawned, wanting to lay his head back in his arms. For such a dark, dank dungeon-room with jarred animal parts placed around the room, it sure was comfy. 

But he was supposed to focus on making sure the potion didn’t boil over! But he was so _sleepy._ But the potion! 

Hah, he had to make sure the Cure for Boils didn’t boil over… 

He yawned again and, rubbing his eyes, accidentally knocked the precariously balanced cauldron to the floor. Yugi, carefully preparing ingredients for the next step, didn’t realize it was falling until Jaden was already yelling, “Nonono, _wait,_ ” and making a final, clumsy attempt to catch the cauldron. 

The potion spilled out onto the floor in front of them, catching on Angelina Johnson’s and Alicia Spinnet’s robes and a bit of their shoes. “Hey!” Angelina cried out, then shot them a ferocious glare. 

Professor Snape swept over like a bat, and shot a quick, “ _Scourgify!_ ” at the mess. It cleared up immediately, which was _so cool,_ but would be cooler if he hadn’t just spilled the potion that they’d been working on for the past hour onto the floor. “Go up to the infirmary and ensure that these fools haven’t left any lasting effects.”

“But, the potion, Professor—?”

“If there was anything worth salvaging, then I’ll let you know, Miss Spinnet, but as it appears,” he gestured at their bright-red potion, “I highly doubt that to be true. Dismissed.” Angelina’s lip curled before she about-faced and stormed out of the room, a teary-eyed Alicia following closely. Professor Snape turned to face him. “As for you, Mr. Yuki. Five points from Gryffindor for total incompetence and neglect.”

Jaden winced. “Okay, yeah, totally deserved that one.”

The professor moved back towards the front of the room before Yugi stuck his hand up in the air and called out, “P-professor!” Jaden stared at him. The Slytherin turned red and shrunk under the gaze of everyone in the classroom, but his hand in the air stayed steady. 

“Mr. Motou,” he drawled. 

“It’s Mutou, actually, sir, and I was just wondering why I wasn’t also punished for spilling the potion? I mean,” Yugi glanced down at Jaden, “we’re partners, so aren’t we both at fa—”

“And it seems to me that this partnership between you and Mr. Yuki will be incapable of completing even the simplest of tasks, Mr. _Mutou_ ,” Professor Snape interrupted. 

Yugi stilled. “Oh,” he let out, sounding small. 

“Let’s have each of you paired with someone who is _hopefully_ more capable than you utter _dolts_ for the rest of the year,” he looked down his hooked nose at them. “And maybe we’ll see something more _passable_ as an edible potion come from the two of you.”

Yugi sat back down with a light _thump._

* * *

The next Potions class, Jaden watched as a series of rather unfortunate events unfolded on the other side of the classroom:

First, Yugi flays the lionfish incorrectly. 

Second, instead of helping, his partner, Terence Higgs, pinches the bridge of his nose and spends so long muttering to himself that their cauldron boils over and spills onto the floor. 

Third, Yugi burns himself by frantically reaching over to turn down the flame. 

Fourth, Terence Higgs stalks away from their station and complains to Professor Snape. 

Fifth, Yugi puts in the lionfish spines too early. They both get zeroes for the day. Yugi gets detention and remedial studies with a, “We do not settle for mediocrity, _boy._ ” He looks absolutely miserable. 

“Poor guy,” Jaden’s partner, Joey, commented, stirring their cauldron carefully. 

So, Jaden made a decision. It probably wasn’t a particularly good one. 

“Sorry, Joey,” he said. He pushed their cauldron onto the floor. 

Joey stared at him, incredulous. “Dude.” 

He shrugged back. 

Professor Snape appeared in front of them, eyes bugging and nostrils flaring. “What is the meaning of this?”

Jaden held up a hand. “Nah, Prof, I got this,” he said, then flicked his wand and cried out, “ _Scourgify!_ ” like Professor Snape has done last week. However, instead of clearing away the mess, the remains of their potion flew upward and splattered onto, well, the Professor. 

  
He slowly wiped the potion out of his eyes and hissed, “ _Detention._ For _both_ of you. And ten points each.” Professor Snape swirled to face the rest of the class, missing how Jaden winked at Yugi with a grin and Joey’s soft _oh_. “Dismissed.”


	3. (Year 1) Yugi: Joey sucks at duel monsters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which jaden's flame wingman is too OP

“Take a look at this!” Joey smirked, a mischievous glint in his eyes as he laid down his card. A Red-Eyes Black Dragon! 

Jaden leaned over for a closer look. “Wow! That _is_ cool! It’s even a shiny version!” He said, sounding like he’s humoring a small child. “But check _this_ out!” He flipped over a Spell card. “I activate the Spell card, Polymerization, to fuse my Elemental Heroes Avian and Burstinatrix--” he placed all three cards in his graveyard to draw out another card from his extra deck “--in order to summon Elemental Hero _Flame Wingman!_ ”

“Hrk!” Joey was looking nervous now. _Joey doesn’t have_ **_any_ ** _Trap or Spell cards out!_ Yugi sighed. _What a massacre this is going to be._

Jaden winked. “And in case you didn’t know, since I have ‘Skyscraper’ in play, Flame Wingman gets an ATK of 3100, which I thiiiink _might_ be more than your Red-Eyes! So, I’ll just…” He moved his card over to Joey’s Red-Eyes and pushed it slightly back. “Red-Eyes gets sent to the graveyard and _you_ lose 700 Life Points!”

“Alright, alright,” Joey grumbled, subtracting the damage from his Life Points on the paper scroll next to him. He had about 2000 Life Points left, but Jaden only had 1500, so he could still win this!

“But that’s not all!” 

“There’s _more?!_ ”

“Yep! Flame Wingman’s special effect is that, upon destroying an opponent’s monster, battle damage equal to the ATK of that monster is applied to its owner. And since Red-Eyes had an ATK of 2400…”

Joey’s hands grabbed at his hair. “Nooooo!”

Jaden grinned and gave him a two-fingered salute. “That’s game!”

“That was amazing, Jaden!” Yugi clapped his hands together, then scratched his temple as he added, “But Joey, you really need to learn how to actually play…”

Joey’s moaning rang on in the background as Jaden rubbed his nose. “Aw, that was nothing! You should see some of the players from the tournaments I’ve been to! Now, _those_ guys are cool. Plus,” he sighed, gathering up his cards, “That’s about the most I can do. I have no idea how to synchro summon or xyz summon or any of that, and it’s not like I have the cards to do it, either. My deck’s pretty awesome, but it’s nothing against these new ones.” He stretched and cried out, “Aaahhh, I wish I could get more cards!”

“Wouldn’t _that_ be nice,” Joey said, flopping onto the cool floor of the corridor. 

Nodding sadly, Yugi joined him. “Gramps owns a game shop, so I’m always seeing new packages of Duel Monster cards come in, but I’m always busy with registering them into the inventory or doing homework… so I haven’t been able to upgrade my deck in _ages._ And now we’re miles away from any games shop at all…”

An air of despair settled over them. “We’ll be so behind…”

Someone shuffled their feet, coughed, then stepped out from behind a corner. A Ravenclaw first-year. “I can’t help with getting new cards or anything,” the black-haired boy began, “but I can teach you guys how to synchro summon. If you want.” He watched them all with a strangely solemn gaze. Yugi was beginning to feel rather embarrassed that they were sprawled all across the hallway like this, and he could feel himself slowly turning red. “Also, I don’t think Mr. Filch will appreciate your cards being strewn about on the floor like that,” he added pointedly. 

Sure enough, Mrs. Norris’s mewing alerted them to her presence running merrily away from them to another part of the castle. All four of them looked at each other, wide-eyed, then the three turned to the Ravenclaw boy. 

He held his hands up. “It wasn’t me.”

“ _Crap!!_ ” They gathered up the rest of Joey’s cards hurriedly, then bolted in the opposite direction of Mrs. Norris. “Where do we go, Yugi? _Where do we go?!_ ” Joey yelled with his arms still full of cards. 

“ _How should I know?!_ ”

“Great idea, Joey!! ‘Let’s go play in the hallway! We definitely won’t get in trouble for _that_!’”

“ _Well, who got us kicked out of the library in the first place, Jaden?!_ ”

“ _Still you, ya dingus_!”

Flich’s voice echoed after them. “INFERNAL KIDS! JUST WAIT UNTIL I FIND YOU!”

Yugi let out a small shriek. “ _Run!_ ”

The Ravenclaw boy grabbed Jaden by the wrist and stopped him from barreling forwards. “This way!” He made a sharp turn to his left. Yugi and Joey followed behind them closely.

They scrambled up a stairway and onto a landing just as the stairs began to shift to a different one. Jaden hauled Yugi off of the stairs at the last minute and tugged him away from the edge. The four of them listened and simultaneously heaved a great sigh of relief as the sound of running faded. Joey finally placed his cards neatly into his deck box; Yugi felt like he could cry.

“Hey, thanks for that!” Jaden said, as cheerful as ever. He stuck out a hand to the Ravenclaw boy, who looked slightly shocked to see it. “The name’s Jaden Yuki!”

The Ravenclaw took Jaden’s hand and shook it solidly. “My name is Yusei Fudou.”

Joey grinned and jabbed a thumb at himself. “Nice to meetcha! ‘M Joey Wheeler!”

Yugi nodded at the other boy, smiling kindly. “Thank you for your help! I’m Yugi Mutou. Welcome to the gang,” he laughed. 

Yusei’s lips turned up in a hesitant smile. “Yes. It’s nice to meet all of you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the boy is here!!! <3333333333
> 
> Also, last update for a while because that’s all I have written so far, and I go back to school next week orz I wanna graduate already........


	4. (Year 1) Yusei: Gotta go faster faster fffaster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which yusei loves flying and winning and gets to do neither of them. sorry yusei

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wait this isn’t sonic—

If there was any one thing to know about Yusei Fudou and his experience with the wizarding world thus far, it would be that he  _ loves _ flying. Learning how to ride a broomstick was, quite possibly, the best thing to ever have happened to him. 

He took to flying like a fish to water. He thought, maybe, that he might’ve been a dragon or a bird or some other sky creature in a past life, because he felt more alive up in the air with the wind rushing all around him and only the broomstick between his legs to support him than he has anywhere else. 

Naturally, he went to try out for the Ravenclaw quidditch team —it’s a wizarding sport… on  _ brooms _ — and was devastated when he found out that first-years weren’t allowed on the team. 

“They didn’t let you try out?” Yugi asked, frowning as he expertly cut Yusei’s deck. They exchanged hands, then Yugi flipped a Bulbasaur token that he’d had in his deck box. “Heads or tails?”

“Heads.”

“How rude.” Jaden puffed out his cheeks as he hung over the back of a chair. The token landed on heads. Yusei would go first. 

“You can say that again,” Joey said. He was concentrating on etching something into a wooden desk with the tip of his quill. He and Jaden were  _ supposed _ to be doing homework, but Yusei supposed that that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. 

“It’s the rules,” Yusei replied simply, straightening his deck. He drew five cards into his hand, then said, “I summon Debris Dragon to the field in attack mode, then place one card facedown and end my turn.” Placing the cards in their positions, he added, “It just means that I’ll have more time to practice playing and studying quidditch until try-outs next year.”

Jaden dropped the card that he had been examining from Yusei’s extra deck zone. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, what do you mean by  _ studying quidditch? _ ” Yusei glanced at him sternly. He picked the card up and placed it back in Yusei’s extra deck with a sheepish grin. “Sorry.” 

“I mean, it’s not  _ that  _ strange. Even duelists study their cards to make sure that they’re compatible, right?” Yugi studied his hand for a moment before pulling one out. “Hm, I’ll summon Celtic Guardian to the field in attack mode, then send Debris Dragon to the graveyard with, let’s see,” he thought out loud, “um… Medieval Slash?”

“Tch.” Yusei moved his card from the field. “I summon a monster in defense position, and end my turn.”

“That’s  _ it?! _ ” Joey cried out, momentarily pausing his activities to shout at him. 

“I don’t wanna hear that from  _ you, _ Mr. I-only-have-monster-cards-in-my-deck.”

“Hey!”

“I’ve never studied for anything in my life, not even this!” Jaden said proudly. Yusei didn’t really think that he should be  _ quite  _ so proud of how little effort he puts in to dueling, but to each his own, he supposed. “I play with my  _ instincts _ . I just,” he looked away with a fond smile, “I  _ know _ my cards. So studying them seems a little redundant.”

Yugi placed Kuriboh on the field in attack mode, put one card facedown, and took out Yusei’s Quillbolt Hedgehog with Celtic Guardian, all while refuting, “But that just proves my point! Jaden, you’ve put thought into your cards, extra brainwork into your deck structure outside of the game! You  _ know _ your cards and their capabilities, you know how they fit together into a strategy, you know them like the back of your hand!” Distracted, Yugi didn’t seem to notice the sudden grin Yusei let slip onto his face. “It’s certainly the mark of a strong duelist, no doubt, but for Yusei to be a strong quidditch player, he’ll have to know the game and the plays just as well as you do your cards. You see? Oh, and,” he turned back to Yusei, “I attack your Life Points directly with Kuriboh.”

Jaden looked thoughtful at that. 

“Quidditch is a pretty complicated game,” Joey commented. He didn’t look up from defacing the desk, though he did have a paper scroll out. Not for homework, though. He was just recording Life Points for them. Yusei was at 3300 to Yugi’s 4000, but that was just fine. 

“That’s true,” Jaden nodded. He turned to Yusei. “How is it complicated again?” he muttered, just as he was about to summon Junk Synchron. 

He looked away from the duel to narrow his eyes at Jaden. “I explained it to you on the way here!”

“I was distracted!”

“By  _ what?! _ ”

“Duel Monsters!” Jaden whined. “Here, explain it again! If not for my sake, then for Yugi’s! I promise I’ll listen this time!” Yusei refrained from rolling his eyes. He summoned Junk Synchron in attack mode and used Quillbolt Hedgehog’s special ability to bring it back from the graveyard. Triumphant, he synchro-summoned Junk Warrior to the field as Yugi blinked his eyes in mild surprise. 

“I gotchu, Yusei, my old man’s friends are always over to talk about quidditch and the ‘good ol’ days’ at Hogwarts.” Joey actually rolled his eyes. “I’ve pretty much absorbed everything there is to know about it, without even meaning to!”

Yugi raised his eyebrows. “Joey! I didn’t know your dad’s a wizard!” 

“Heh… yeah, he is.” Yugi’s eyes flicked toward him. He activated his spell card, Mystic Box. “Anyways, there are seven players on each team, yours and the opposing’s, and each team—”

“ _ Yugi, _ ” Yusei said, exasperated as his Junk Warrior was destroyed and exchanged with Yugi’s Kuriboh. 

“Your synchro monsters scare me, Yusei!” Yugi snickered, all too pleased with himself. “I don’t want you summoning them, so you’re gonna have to try harder than that to keep them on the field! Not that you’ve been making it  _ hard _ to do, but I just thought I’d let you know.” He stuck his tongue out at him. 

Yusei’s jaw dropped. 

“Ooh,” Joey called out. “You’re in for it now, Yug’! He’s pulling the big-boy gloves on!”

“It’s Yusei who should be worried! Yugi hasn’t even been playing his hardest!” Jaden threw an arm out dramatically, almost whacking Yugi in the eye. “The real game starts  _ now! _ ” 

Yusei leaned forward, a competitive flame being lit inside him, and knew that Yugi was feeling the same. Laughing brightly, Yugi sacrificed his Celtic Guardian to summon his Summoned Skull in attack mode. “Your move!”

* * *

In his third year, Yusei hears that hotshot, first-year Harry  _ fucking  _ Potter gets onto the Gryffindor quidditch team, practically for  _ breathing, _ from a nervous-looking Yuma and calmly — _ very calmly _ , he might add— goes to speak with Professor Flitwick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kind of completely fucked up the timeline for this fic, hehe. sorry for the shoddy dueling!! tbh I really wanted to have yugi play the dark magician at the end, but it just wasn’t in the cards this time 😔 anyways, pls enjoy this chapter!! 
> 
> cries i have so much stuff to do this month,,,,,, I’ll try my best to keep updating regardless!!!!!


	5. (Year 1) that christmas spirit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which the holidays come and go so quickly (winter break snapshots)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> rating will change. not bc of anything the boys did, but bc I have a pottymouth.

Jaden didn’t really want to be seeing his friends off. He didn’t want to be hearing about all the things that they were gonna do when they got home and feeling jealous about it.

They were excited to go home and hang with their families, and he _got_ that, truly, he did. He wanted to feel _happy_ for his friends. He just--

“Aw, are you guys really gonna be leaving me with _him?_ ” 

He grinned as Joey took a swing at him, yelling, “What does _that_ mean, huh, punk?!”

Yugi laughed, radiant, and gave the two of them a quick hug. “Sorry! Gramps’ shop always gets really hectic near the holidays, so I need to help out as much as I can!”

Yusei grimaced. “I think I would get yelled at if I didn’t come home, and my brother would probably cry, so…” Jaden saw his lips turn up slightly as he walked toward the main entrance.

“Yeah, I get that,” Jaden replied, smile twisting. He felt something ugly and heavy settle in his chest. “They probably miss ya lots.” Joey crossed his arms, leaning against the wall with his eyes downcast.

Yugi blinked. He reached out a hand. “What’s--”

The final call for students leaving Hogwarts for the holidays rang out. 

“Yugi!” Yusei called.

Joey ruffled Yugi’s hair. “Time to go, pal!” 

They left with a last “Happy Christmas!” then, “Hey, you wanna play Duel Monsters on the train?” and, “Um, how about we try a different game this time?” Joey and Jaden glanced at each other as students around them clamored to see their families again, and stood there, unmoving, until they were alone. They weren’t going home, and—

It just kinda wasn’t fair, is all.

* * *

“You’re home!” Rally cried out, abandoning his game of Old Maid with Crow and letting his cards scatter to the floor. Yusei let his trunk fall to the floor in favor of wrapping his arms tightly around the six-year-old. “Welcome back!” He heard Martha chuckling warmly behind him.

“Hey, Yusei! Glad to see you, man!” Crow came over to give him a fist bump. “How’ve you been, Yus’? How’s your fancy prep school?” 

Yusei smiled. “It’s fine. A little bit crazy… but fine.” He spotted a shadow standing near the stairwell. “Hi, Yusaku.” Yusaku jolted, and he suddenly appeared --the shadows around him seemingly depixelizing like a bad powerpoint transition-- clutching a letter in his hands. A familiar wax seal had been broken from the lip of the letter.

Ah. He thought this might happen. 

“Yusei.” The letter was thrust under his nose. “What is this,” Yusaku said, like a statement rather than a question. Yusei glanced around the room. Rally was leaning on Yusaku’s arm and standing on his tip-toes for a closer look at the letter, and even Crow couldn’t stop himself from creeping over curiously. 

Martha placed a hand on Rally’s shoulder. “Now, now, boys. How about we let Yusei and Yusaku catch up while we set up the dinner table?”

“Aw, okay…”

Crow looked back and quirked an eyebrow at him. Yusei gave him a _what can you do_ kind of shrug, then hooked his arm around Yusaku’s shoulders. “C’mon. I gotta tell you something.”

* * *

Yugi was seated comfortably on his bed, various booster packs and deck boxes laying open around him. “Yusei would like this one,” he muttered, placing Cards of Consonance with Heart of the Underdog and Happy Lover. He laughed, “and I _definitely_ have to give Jaden my Winged Kuriboh. What should I get Miho?” He searched through the cards strewn about his bed before he heard his Gramps calling.

He glanced out the hallway. “Grandpa?” Yugi recoiled at the hallway phone suddenly being shoved in his face then took it gingerly. Gramps grinned slyly at him and tiptoed back down to the front of the shop. “H-hello?”

“Yugi?”

“Tea!” Voice cracking and skin turning red, he squeaked into the phone, “How are you? ...are you swinging by the shop anytime soon?”

“I’m fine! And no, sorry, Yugi. My parents and I flew to New York for break,” she apologized. “But, I’ll be back on the 10th! Think I can see you then?”

His heart dropped. “No, I’ll be back at school already.” He thought back to Happy Lover laying upstairs on his bed and sighed.

“...oh. I see.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, even so, I hope everything’s going well at that fancy boarding school of yours!”

“Yeah, it is! I’m, uh,” he searched for words that wouldn’t give away the fact that he was at a _magic_ school learning _magic_ things, “learning lots. I made a couple of friends, too!”

“That’s great, Yugi,” she responded softly. “I’m happy for you.”

“Thanks,” he paused. _I wish I could see you, though._ “Oh, hey, I solved that puzzle Gramps gave me!”

“ _Really?!_ Jeez, it only took you, like, four years!”

* * *

So. Holiday break was officially the _best._ No homework, no classes, no getting up early every day, and best of all… _no ending to the influx of food for his tummy._ (And no one to stop him from bringing food back to his dorm, either.)

Even with most of the school missing on break, platters upon platters of entrees and desserts and appetizers lined the table that the staff and remaining students sat at. Everyone had their cups of cider and hot chocolate on hand, digging in happily into the peppermint humbugs and steak-and-kidney pie. Jaden felt like he could _die_ from how much food there was. Besides the fact that there wasn’t any fried shrimp, he was totally on cloud nine. 

“Jesus, Jaden, maybe try _chewing?_ ” 

Joey winced in disgust as Jaden opened his mouth to answer, “Buh a an!” He swallowed then tried again, “But I am! Everything’s just _so good_ , Joey! Besides,” he added, “don’t act like _you’re_ any better.” Joey’s plate was piled high with chips and burgers and grilled cheeses. 

“Shuddap! I’m a growing boy!” He took a large bite from his burger. 

Jaden _hmph_ ed and turned to continue walking back to their dormitory. “So am--!” His plate knocked into someone’s forehead, almost sending his food crashing to the ground. “Whoa! You okay?” He’d run into Syrus Truesdale, a Hufflepuff first-year that mostly kept to the background. Jaden hadn’t realized that he’d stayed behind for the hols. 

“Yeah, I’m okay.” There was a giant red mark on the kid’s forehead that he was rubbing at. He was a little teary-eyed. Jaden winced. _Was_ he okay? Really? “Just another bad day, I guess. I mean, how can things get any worse, right?”

“That’s a good way to look at it!” Jaden replied optimistically, while internally panicking, _He’s crying! Actually, totally crying!_ Jaden sent signals for help to Joey, who gave him a look like _nah, bro, this is all on you_. 

Syrus, who was apparently having the worst day ever, kept going. “I mean, it’s not like my brother told me to stay here because he didn’t want me around while he’s at home, right? It’s not like he said that I’m a horrible wizard that will never amount to anything, right?”

“Uh…”

He burst into tears. 

“Hey, okay!” Jaden patted the Hufflepuff’s back. “You’re okay! Here, eat something!” He and Joey both offered up their plates to the poor kid. 

With a few chips in him, he was wiping his face with the sleeve of his robes. “T-thanks,” he said. 

“No problem! It looked like you really needed that,” Joey replied.

“Yeah… it’s been rough.” Syrus sighed and nodded at them. “Thanks for being nice to a Hufflepuff like me.”

Jaden winced. “Uh… you’re welcome, I guess?” Joey whacked his arm. “Ow! I mean, what do you mean by that?”

“Well… everyone knows that Hufflepuff is where all the leftovers go. My brother told me so,” he said, and suddenly Jaden understood.

“That’s not true!” he cried. “Sure, yellow’s not nearly as cool as red, but aren’t Hufflepuffs known to be loyal and hard-working and good finders? That’s really cool! Don’t get so down on yourself!”

“I guess…” Syrus was still down in the dumps, like it was almost impossible to alleviate his mood. Almost like Yugi on a particularly bad day with the other Slytherins. Jaden got the feeling that Syrus also didn’t get on well with the rest of his House, if for completely different reasons. He didn’t look the type to have many friends.

Jaden thought for a moment. Well, what would he do if _Yugi_ was feeling sad? “Hey! I know what’ll make you feel better!” He held up his deck box. “Do you know how to duel?”

* * *

Yugi and Miho came to a stop at Platform 9 at King’s Cross Station, arms still linked together while his mom and Grandpa tugged his things behind them. “Thanks again for coming to see me off, Miho.” 

She hummed and giggled, and he took the chance to subtly glance around the room. “No problem! It was really great to see you, Yugi!” He spotted other Slytherins, like Terence Higgs and Marcus Flint and them, disappearing quickly behind the crowds, then crossing through the barrier to Platform 9¾. “Are you going to be able to see me compete in the Capmon tournament in June?”

“Huh? Oh! Yeah, definitely.” Her love of Capsule Monsters was one of the reasons why they got on so well usually. It’s just that sometimes, she could be… a bit annoying, and wouldn’t get the hint that she needed to leave. (That was mean. He felt bad now.) “That’s right! I almost forgot!” Pushing aside his guilt, he dug through his pockets for her gift, and pulled out the Skelengel Capmon piece that he’d found the day before. “Happy belated Christmas!”

She paused, staring bug-eyed at the piece, then squealed. “Thank you, thank you, oh my gosh!” She hugged him and swung him in circles on the train platform until they were both dizzy. When she stopped, they were both breathless and laughing and he was thoroughly reminded that he loved her. “Now there’s no way I can’t win! Miho’s going to do her absolute best, so you definitely have to support her, okay?” She wore her most earnest expression as she took his hands in hers.

He smiled at her, one of his best friends of six years, and said, “Of course. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

They held hands for a peaceful moment. “Okay!” Miho cried. She spun around with Skelengel clutched tightly in her hands and rubbed it against her face adoringly. “Oh, oh, now all I need are Hyper Beetle and Ninja Squid and -- _ooh!_ \-- Meowball! Then, the dream team will be,” she sighed, “complete. Oh, I absolutely _need_ to get started! _Eep!_ ” 

She ran off, leaving Yugi’s mom to call after her, “Wait, Miho-chan!” 

He blinked. He supposed that getting onto the platform would be easier than he’d thought it’d be.

* * *

“So, what do you know about Hogwarts so far?”

“Besides that I don’t really want to go? Nothing.” 

Yusei raised his eyebrows. “Oh. You don’t want to?”

Yusaku clasped his hands in his lap. “No. While I find the idea of magic fascinating, I don’t see the point in changing the way things are. Plus, I’ve been making good progress on fixing the motherboard. I just need a few more components.” He collected the carefully-put-together remains of the laptop that Crow had fished out of the dumpster for him. “It’s almost done, see?” 

“That’s amazing Yusaku!” Yusei ran his fingers across the various raised parts, getting caught every now and then on the edges and stopping on a square bit near the corner. “An EPROM chip… where did you get one?”

“I made it.” He almost dropped the motherboard. “I was reading through that manual we found to try and figure out how to implement the BIOS program, but I won’t be able to get to that for a while.” 

Yusei stared at the younger boy for a moment, who was flipping idly through a beat up programming textbook that used to be Yusei’s. He had written lines upon lines of notes in pencil in the margins. He’d only had the textbook for half a year. “Wow…” 

Yusaku looked up at him. “Yusei?”

He picked at the holes in the sleeves of his jacket. He took in the lined cots and that one piece of the ceiling that still leaked no matter what they did to it. (Hogwarts’ beds were so warm.) He thought about Yusaku’s nightmares, Rally’s ripped clothing, Crow’s dirty hands after digging through compost and scrap metal. He thought about notes in the margin of a secondhand textbook. “Why don’t you want to go to Hogwarts?” he asked.

“I--”

“It’s amazing being there.” Yusaku blinked at him, then sat back. “I think it... would be good for you to be somewhere new.” Yusei clenched his fingers. He didn’t want to push too hard, but… 

“You really want me to go,” Yusaku said.

Yusei didn’t respond. Guilt roiled in his stomach.

“Okay,” the other boy said, easy as anything.

He faced him, eyes wide. “You don’t ha--”

“I should go.” Yusaku closed the textbook in his lap, looking serious. “I have three reasons for going.” Yusei, despite his immense regret at having said anything at all, felt his lips twitch. Yusaku lifted his index finger. “One: I think it would be valuable to learn more about subjects few get to learn about.” He raised another. “Two: magic seems like it would be,” he searched for his words, “fun to learn about,” he finally decided. “And three,” and here his eyes shifted, like he was far away, “maybe it would be nice to be somewhere new.”

Yusei let himself smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM SORRY THIS IS SO LATE BUT IN OTHER NEWS,,,,,,, GUESS WHO GOT INTO COLLEGE
> 
> no writing this chapter was definitely a little bit like pulling teeth and I rewrote each of the sections so many times trying to feel happy with it, so I really hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. *bows* thank you all for your wonderful, amazing, sweet, thoughtful comments!!! I literally freak every time I see a new one and they make me really happy ;w; thank you for your kindness
> 
> updates are definitely gonna be as slow as this one was or maybe even slower, but I hope that you’ll still this story to the end with me!! Thanks for reading, everyone!!
> 
> (oh also pls don’t stone me for getting computer details wrong okay i am but a mere writer who takes ~artistic liberties~ on things


	6. (Year 1) misc.: brotective tendencies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which some slytherin house politics are discussed. kinda.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pls enjoy!!

“Good morning!” 

Yugi’s smile faltered as Adrian —of the Pucey family, he made sure to note— coolly pushed past him and into the bathroom. 

If Yugi had learned anything about Slytherins, it was that they valued their family names above everything else. And Yugi, the muggleborn kid with a muggle last name —and, God _forbid_ , a _Japanese_ one— was not well liked. 

(And, no, they did not like his hair.)

Still, he nodded a greeting to “Higgs, Terrence,” held the door open for Carrows, Hestia and Flora, and made idle chatter with a stone-faced “Bole, Lucian” as they made their way to Charms. After all, they _were_ living together. He was trying his best to be friendly, although his efforts weren’t exactly being reciprocated, even after five months of being in school together.

Their group of six arrived at the Charms classroom, where Bobby Cadwallader, Megan Jones, and Cedric Diggory were all crowded around and laughing about something or other. Yugi raised his hand in greeting, to which they responded by giving him a suspicious glance and huddling closer together. He let his hand fall back down to his side. 

“Yugi!” 

Syrus, Yugi’s fellow half-pint among their friends, clutched his bookbag close to his side as he hurried down the corridor and waved haphazardly. Yugi grinned and went to greet him, even as he noted the way the other Hufflepuffs didn’t seem to make of them. In the back of his mind he also noticed, but was not quite quick enough to react, as one of the twins shared a wicked grin with her sister before pulling out her wand and muttering, “ _Diffindo!_ ” under her breath. 

“Ah! Hey!” Syrus’ bag split open at the bottom, spilling books and quills and a collection of toy cars in red and blue and silver and black. There was also the beginnings of a tear at the waist of his robes, where the spell had almost nicked him. 

Yugi eyed that tear as he bent down to help Syrus pick up his things, feeling something strange rise in his throat at the sight. _He could’ve been hurt really badly..._

Adrian came over and plucked a car off the ground, snickering, “Playing with muggle things, are we now? I’m almost _surprised_ that a _Truesdale_ would stoop so low as to become a blood-traitor.” He glanced at the pair of them kneeling on the ground, each gathering things in their robes, then snickered, “But maybe I shouldn’t be.”

For a moment, Syrus looked as though he might return some scathing remark, but then his face crumpled and he pushed past the Slytherin, hurrying into the Charms classroom without looking at anyone. Yugi followed closely after with the rest of Syrus’ things, but stopped in front of the doorway. 

He considered all the things that he could say then, to the Hufflepuffs giving him accusatory glances, to Terrence shifting from foot to foot, to Hestia twirling her wand boredly between her fingers, to Flora and Lucian standing quietly against the wall. To Adrian, who was mockingly holding up Syrus’s Hot Wheels toy like a prize. All the things he could’ve said to his primary school bullies, and all the things he could’ve said to the raucous men who called his Gramps senile and made passes at his mom. 

And Yugi, as always, said nothing. 

(...maybe _that_ was why they didn’t like him.)

* * *

“They did _what?!_ ”

“It’s really not that big a deal,” Syrus replied, though his depressed aura clearly said otherwise. “It was just a toy.”

“It’s not that!” Jaden cried. “It’s that they _stole something from you!_ ” 

Joey made a loud noise of disgust. He turned to Yugi, who was sitting against the wall, for once trying to focus on his Potions essay. “How do you _deal_ with those guys, Yug’?!”

Yugi smiled thinly, ducking his head closer to his essay. _The specific motions of the wand one must use whilst stirring in the salamander blood in the indigo-to-pink phase is integral to the effectiveness of the Wiggenweld Potion because…_ he hated writing with a quill, honestly. _Wizards,_ he thought, exasperated. “I manage.” 

Yusei closed his textbook with a loud _thud,_ making everyone’s eyes turn toward him _._ “I guess we’ll just have to steal it back then.” 

A beat passed. 

“...uh.” Jaden squinted at him. “Aren’t you supposed to be the _good_ student out of us? That’s against the rules, you know.”

“And? Sometimes it’s okay.”

Jaden grinned slowly. “Wow, okay, we get it. You’re, like, _cool_ cool.”

Yusei made an unintelligible noise, flushing red and narrowing his eyes at the other boy. “Stop.”

Yugi tilted his head to the side, fully abandoning his essay. “Why would you need to steal it back? I live in Slytherin dorm. I can just get it back from Adrian. Wouldn’t that be more simple?” He wanted to tap his quill against the table, but settled for his index finger instead.

(Syrus sighed. “It would, but I guess we just can’t do things the easy way around here.” Jaden threatened to sit on him if he didn’t hush.)

Yusei seemed to ponder his words for a bit, picking and choosing what to say. “...Yes, that’s true. But they’ve been harassing you, haven’t they?”

“ _What?!_ ” Joey puffed up. “Have those douchebags been giving you trouble? Yugi! Why didn’t you say something?!” He grabbed his shoulders and shook the Slytherin back and forth. 

“I— shut up, Joey,” Yugi pushed him away distractedly, replying, “I wouldn’t call it _harassment._ And, in any case, it’s not as bad as you’re making it out to be.” 

Yusei’s lips thinned. “Bad or not, though I’m sure that you’re just downplaying it—”

“Some of the other Slytherins are okay!”

“—and I do _not_ appreciate it,” he finished, giving Yugi a steely look. “The fact remains that we need to get Syrus’ car back, without putting a bigger target on your back. And,” Yusei added as an afterthought, “it’d be nice to teach them a lesson.”

“Sounds awesome, I’m in!” Jaden said cheerily from where he was, indeed, sitting on a struggling, swearing Syrus. 

Joey nodded with a kind of determined glint in his eyes that Yugi knew, seeing how Yusei was busy leader-ing and Jaden was busy listening along in a rather-impatient-but-trying-not-to-be kind of way, that he thought that there really was no getting out of this. He supposed he couldn’t stop them… but that didn’t stop him from feeling a pit fall in his stomach.

He went back to his essay.

* * *

“You know what’d be _really_ _great_ right about now?”

“Not now, Jaden!” 

“An invisibility cloak. Like the one from that story! Then we wouldn’t be _stuck here._ ”

“Shut up, Jaden!”

“Hey! Quit pushing me!”

“Move your head, then, Syrus! I can’t breathe with all your hair in my face!”

“I can’t. Move! We’re in a _closet!_ Where on earth do you think I can move _to_?”

Yusei hushed them all into submission. “If we get caught--!” He quieted immediately, staring intently at the wall hiding the entrance to the Slytherin common room. He watched as a third-year student, focused on the novel (he was surprised to see it was _Jane Eyre_ ) she was reading, absentmindedly mumbled out the password --too quiet to catch-- and went to enter the revealed passageway. Yusei furrowed his eyebrows, resolute. _Someone_ had to say the password aloud _eventually._

“Gemma!” a voice called from out of view, and the third-year stopped to smile as Yugi ran up to the opening in the wall. 

“Good hustle!” She said, giving him a high-five as Yugi hunched over to catch his breath. 

“Thanks for holding it open for me.” He wiped at his mouth. He straightened up, laughing slightly nervously, “I sorta forgot the new password immediately.” Even as he said so, Yugi glanced over at where the four of them were hiding, squished together in the closet, and Yusei blinked. 

“Understandable.” Gemma crinkled up her nose. “It’s so distasteful. If _I_ could’ve forgotten it immediately, I would’ve in a heartbeat.” She smiled again, poking Yugi briefly on the forehead. “I’ll tell you what it is, but don’t forget it again, okay? Next time, you might get locked out!”

“I won’t!” Yugi bowed slightly. “Thank you!”

“Here, it’s _toujour pur._ Get it memorized, yeah?” She ruffled his hair one last time before slipping through the passage. Once she was gone, Yugi let his smile slip away and made brief eye-contact with Yusei before going through himself.

The wall closed behind him as Yusei listened to Syrus sniffle and Joey quickly relay everything that happened to Jaden, who was pushed into the very back. Yusei internally thanked him.

They waited until past midnight, hours after Yusei’s legs went numb and long after the last yawning Slytherins had been trickled into the common room, before Yusei and a sleepy-eyed-but-stubborn Jaden crawled their way out of the closet and left a snoring Syrus and Joey leaning against each other. They pressed themselves into the wall as the Bloody Baron passed by, Jaden clamping a hand tight against his mouth like he was trying to keep from breathing too loud. Once Slytherin’s ghost was gone, he kept an eye out for other spirits as Yusei whispered, as softly as he could, “ _Toujour pur,_ ” to a hidden snake on the wall.

It felt a little like a secret mission, Yusei thought to himself as they snuck through the entrance into the dimly-lit common room, and was suitably startled when he heard two relatively loud _crack_ ing sounds. He ignored Jaden, who was chuckling silently even though he’d jumped as well, in favor of examining their surroundings. 

An empty portrait frame sat upon the mantelpiece and fireplace, and Yusei thanked his lucky stars that they hadn’t encountered the portrait’s owner. (In the back of his mind, he wondered where portraits went, when they weren’t in their frames, although he recalled Roger telling him once that the portraits “couldn’t be expected to stick around forever!” He concluded that portraits would go wherever portraits went.) Even at the late hour, the fireplace’s glowing green embers were still going strong, and a single seventh-year student was snoring loudly on one of the couches in front with an arithmancy textbook resting on their chest. One of the walls was made entirely out of glass, showing into the murky depths of the Great Lake, and as he got closer to the surface of it, he swore he could see something watching him from the water…

“Why do you think the fire’s green, huh, Yusei?” Jaden’s stage-whisper cut across the room clearly, and the seventh-year’s snoring stopped for a moment before immediately resuming, after which Yusei sent Jaden a short and sharp look. He shot a cherubic smile back, to which Yusei replied by muttering “ _Lumos,_ ” and heading towards the boys’ dormitories. “I bet it’s for aesthetics.”

Yusei’s wand lit the way as they walked to the end of the corridor, stopping at a door labeled “First-Year.” The snake-shaped handle was a delicately gilded piece of metal, with eyes that seemed to follow them as it glinted in wandlight and made him pause and remember to whisper, “ _Nox._ ” In the resulting darkness, he silently creeped the door open, shared a nod with Jaden, and the two of them slipped inside.

* * *

“Mr. Yuki, Mr. Fudou, Mr. Mutou.” Professor McGonagall gazed at each of them sternly, making Yugi fidget in his seat and Yusei sit all straight-backed and hands-clasped and Jaden—

Jaden responded with a lazy peace sign, “‘sup, Prof?”

He flinched as her critical eye turned to him and she said, “If you would kindly explain to me _why_ Mr. Pucey’s undergarments were hung on display in the Entrance Hall during breakfast this morning?”

“Oh,” Jaden let out a nervous laugh, “ _about_ that—”

“It was my idea, Professor McGonagall,” Yusei said, meeting her eyes full-on. “Jaden and Yugi had nothing to—” 

Jaden gave him a hard pat on the back, stopping him mid-sentence with a, “Shut up, Yusei,” as Yugi cried out, “Don’t say that!”

Almost wringing his hands, Yugi explained quickly, “They were angry on my behalf, Professor. I’m not getting on so well with the others, and so they decided to,” he shrunk back. “Well. I should’ve stopped them.”

Jaden made an indignant sound at the back of his throat. “Oh, c’mon, Yugi! Don’t you start too!”

“But it’s true! I—”

“ _You’re_ probably the least at fault here,” Yusei cut in. He turned back to the Headmistress with a certain look of determination in his eyes like he was trying to get Yugi and Joey to do their homework during a particularly intense game of wizarding chess. “Professor, I will—”

She raised her hand to silence the three of them. “That is enough.” Adjusting her glasses, she suddenly had a slightly amused tint to her expression that made her look… _softer_ somehow, and made Jaden want to squirm in his chair. Professor McGonagall regained her stern gaze, steepling her fingers together. “Misters Fudou and Mutou, I’ll be contacting each of your Heads of House in order to inform them of the situation. They’ll decide to punish you as they see fit. As for your housing arrangements, Mr. Mutou,” she peered at him over the rim of her glasses, “I’ll be sure to let Professor Snape know of the situation—”

“It really is fine, Professor McGonagall!” Her eyes grew sharp at the interruption, but Yugi’s voice kept firm. “I’ll manage.”

Jaden’s eyebrows furrowed, and he side-eyed the Slytherin. _Sure, but how long would he 'manage'_ for? he thought, but didn’t say out loud. 

The professor sighed before nodding her assent. She then continued, turning to Jaden with a, “As for you, Mr. Yuki,” and Jaden thought _uh oh_ , but then the door to her office was slammed open by _Syrus_ , looking for all the world like a sweaty hero coming to save the day. 

“ _Professor!_ ” He shouted, heaving great breaths. “ _It’s my fault, don’t punish them!_ ”

She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Take a seat—”

“Uh, Professor McGonagall?” Roger Davies, one of the other Ravenclaw first-years poked his head into her office as well, knocking on the doorframe. “I’m sorry to bother you, but it appears that Joey Wheeler from your House just broke Adrian Pucey’s nose down by the Great Lake.”

There was a beat of silence as everyone in the room stared at him. 

He blinked. “Should I come back later?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANKS FOR READING YOU GUYS!!! i appreciate everyone who does, and i hope everyone's having a good day and everyone's comments are so LOVELY and i wish my chapters came out faster for yall,,,, but i have exams in a couple of months and now its like crunch time for graduation, and ill try to keep updating, but things are HAPPENING folks, life is MOVING FAST and im trying really hard to keep up. i hope you all keep supporting this fic, bc i have some REALLY COOL THINGS PLANNED and im SUPER EXCITED to share them 
> 
> much love!! <333333333
> 
> oh also!! follow me on twitter for yugioh, kingdom hearts, lots of complaining about the weather, and occasionally the bachelor @cheakvsea


	7. (Year 1) Jaden & Yusei: magic is wack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which we figure out why jaden is not a quidditch player

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> enjoy!!

“Hey, Jaden, should I do it?”

Joey lifted the pitcher of pumpkin juice and hovered it over his goblet, which was half-full with orange juice. Jaden raised both his eyebrows, then shrugged. Angelina, sitting across from the pair, gasped. “ _ Don’t— _ ”

Joey poured pumpkin juice into his orange juice. She made a loud noise of disgust. “I  _ hate  _ it when you do this!”

Jaden leaned over the goblet curiously, watching as some of the grainy bits of various spices floated to the surface of the now-murky orange juice. Alicia, sitting on Joey’s other side, piped up, “Oh. This one doesn’t look  _ too  _ bad.”

Joey sniffed the liquid, then took a gulp. Angelina made a barfing sound. He held it out to her. “Don’t knock it until you try it!”

“ _ Never. _ ”

“I’ll try it,” Jaden said, and Joey handed the goblet off to him. He took a sip and was immediately hit with the sweetness of Joey’s latest concoction. He let the taste sit in his mouth for a while, thinking. “It’s not as bad as that time you put mayonnaise on your cauldron cake.”

“Hey, I did that mostly to piss off Lee Jordan!”

Alicia grimaced. “And you ate the whole thing anyways…” 

“ _ Ugh! _ ” Angelina shoved away her mostly-emptied plate. “I can’t eat anymore.”

“It  _ was _ pretty gross, Joey,” Jaden agreed. 

Joey rubbed his nose. “Why, thank you. I try.”

“Is Joey doing something weird with his food again?” Jaden turned to see Lee, Fred, and George coming up to them with wide grins and armfuls of brightly-colored sweets. “Here,” Lee dropped something white on Angelina’s plate. “Have a Sugar Quill to bring back your appetite.”

“Wha—” She picked it up. “How’d you get this?” 

“What  _ is _ it?” Jaden asked. It looked like a quill made of sugar, but there had to be something more, right? 

“It’s a quill made of sugar,” Alicia said, leaning her cheek on the palm of her hand. “What does it  _ look _ like?” She added flatly. 

He examined the one Fred gave him. “So, it doesn’t do anything?” He poked his with a finger. 

“What would it do? Turn you into a bird?”

Fred’s eyes lit up. “George, write that down!”

Joey, ignoring them, responded, “It’s basically like a sucker, only it’s supposed to be easy to sneak into class.” Sure enough, he had one end of the Sugar Quill sticking out of the corner of his mouth as he mumbled his explanation.

“And it’s not something you can get from the house elves!” Angelina pointed an accusatory finger at them and their sweets. “Which is  _ why _ I’m wondering how you three got those!”

George pretended to cast a  _ tempus _ , dropping a red lollipop on the ground. “Oh, well, would you look at the time, lads! Off we go to Defence now!” They took off running. 

Jaden picked up the lollipop, then looked at the rest of their group. “What’s this one?”

“Blood Pop.” Alicia gave him a nervous smile. “You’re not gonna try  _ that _ one, are you?”

He put it back on the ground.

* * *

Jaden’s foot tapped against the floor rapidly as Professor Banner answered questions about curses and vaults and Cursed Vaults (although anyone who had a sibling who’d gone to Hogwarts last year knew all about  _ that _ ), and it wasn’t that Jaden wasn’t  _ interested _ , per se, but rather that he couldn’t seem to focus today, not on sleeping or listening or  _ nothing _ . 

He could make up his nap in History of Magic, though, so he wasn’t too bothered by it.

Instead he was doodling all over his notes, Sonic Chick rummaging around under Yusei’s desk across the room, Baby Dragon sitting happily on Joey’s shoulders, and he had just finished doodling Dark Magician as he loomed over Yugi’s tiny form when Kenneth hissed at him, “Stop doing that!” from the row in front of him. Jaden grinned at him, stopped tapping his foot, and continued doodling his newest monster.

“The Vault of Fear… what lay inside it came straight from your own nightmares,” Banner said, his voice something far away as Jaden drew wings and long hair. “It took your fears and made them real…” The eyes, dual-colored… “...but it’s true purpose was to protect that which hid inside. Even if it had to curse others to do it...” In a daze, he sketched out claw-like hands, and wondered what he was drawing. (He wondered why he felt so sad all of a sudden.)

“But!” Banner clapped his hands together brightly, making Jaden —and the other dozen students in the room— jolt out of their chairs. “I’ll stop here before I get complaints about night terrors!”

“Aw!”

“Professor!”

“Now, now, isn’t that the bell I hear?” Professor Banner began cleaning up his things. His cat, Pharaoh, mewed at him as he was moved from his resting spot in the middle of the desk. “You all should be getting going, yes?” 

Jaden’s heart beated loudly in his chest. 

What was in that Sugar Quill?

* * *

“Are you sure about this, Yusei?” Patricia asked after Defence Against the Dark Arts, picking at her fingernails as her eyes swept side to side. 

Yusei stared at his fellow first-year Ravenclaw, at the bags under her eyes and her pale skin, and said, firmly, “Yes. It’ll be fine.” Even if it wasn’t exactly allowed, she needed a break. 

“I’ve got them!” Roger hurried over, stumbling under the weight of three broomsticks. “Let’s go!”

The three Ravenclaws raced out to the Quidditch Pitch, slowing as they noticed the Ravenclaw Keeper, Andre Egwu, coming their way. 

They nodded at him, hoping he wouldn’t bat an eye in their direction, but he stopped Yusei, Patricia, and Roger, each with a Cleansweep Seven in hand, and said, with a stern look, “Are you supposed to have those?”

“Uh,” said Roger. 

Yusei kept his own gaze straight forward and opened his mouth to reply when, Patricia, thinly-veiled calm wiped away, gasped, “We’re not allowed to, are we?” She turned to them, getting increasingly more hysterical as she continued, “I can’t get in trouble! Finals start  _ next week! _ Yusei! Roger!  _ We’re not allowed to study in detention! _ ” 

“Calm down!” Andre raised his hands to placate her. “ _ Breathe. _ There we go,” he watched her carefully. “That’s it. Everything’s going to be fine. I was just teasing you.” He smiled slightly as she backed off from the verge of tears. “I am curious to know, though. What were you going to do with those broomsticks, huh?” 

“We were hoping to practice with the quaffle, sir,” Yusei replied, straight-backed with his hands behind him, and Roger quickly followed suit. “We wanted to,” he glanced over at Patricia wiping her eyes, “try to relax before exams started. If that’s alright. We figured it’d be fun.”

Andre’s grin got wider. “And someone’s looking to be on the team next year, huh?”

Yusei and Roger each shot the other a look. After all, there were only so many spots on the team. “Something like that,” Roger said coolly. 

“That’s great! Here, I’ll help you get the balls out from the storage room.” He motioned for them to follow him the rest of the way back down towards the field. 

“Sorry about bothering you,” Yusei started, staring at Andre’s dirty practice gear. “I’m sure you must be tired after practicing…” 

Andre waved him off. “I’m not so tired I can’t help out some quidditch-loving firsties. I must say, though, I’m surprised that  _ you _ , Fudou, aren’t still in trouble with Flitwick after that stunt you pulled with that Slytherin first-year.”

“I’m pretty sure Wheeler took the brunt of that,” Roger spoke up, walking by Andre’s side. 

Yusei winced. 

“Oh, please,” Andre said. “I’m sure hanging someone else’s dirty laundry is  _ much _ worse than merely  _ breaking their nose _ . Madam Pomfrey has to fix those all the time for quidditch, and she can do it in a snap, but even she can’t fix your social standing.”

Yusei was briefly reminded of when Blitz had his wrist snapped falling off the emergency landing. It had taken weeks to heal. “That’s…”

“Amazing!” Patricia finished for him. Her eyes were practically sparkling. “Magic is  _ so cool! _ ”

Andre huffed out a laugh, looking over his shoulder at them. “If you say so.” 

He led them past the stands and, as they arrived at the pitch, Yusei noticed that they had company. “Jaden!” He called, beginning to jog. 

“Yusei, hey!” Jaden waved, straightening from where he had been doubled over and laughing as Joey and one of the Weasley twins gave up on lifting a large chest between them before finally handing it off to Johnson and Spinnet, each grabbing a side and —with one giant heft— carrying it the rest of the way to the middle of the field. 

“Hm.” Andre pulled up beside Yusei, narrowing his eyes at the group of Gryffindors. “Madame Hooch let you take that out, did she?”

The other twin gave him a winning smile. “Yep!”

“Uh huh.”

The Gryffindor’s smile faltered. 

Andre’s silence went on. 

Finally, Jaden pleaded, “Aw, c’mon! You gotta say  _ something! _ ”

“What he  _ means _ to say,” Yusei said, lifting his broomstick slightly, “is that we can all play together, five-on-five. We’ll share the equipment. That should be fine, right?”

The sixth year stared at them all for a moment longer, then sighed, relenting. “I guess I  _ can’t _ stop a bunch of overeager, quidditch-loving firsties from playing,” sounding very exasperated and amused all at once. He crossed his arms, “But I’ll have to supervise.”

Johnson grimaced. “Do you  _ have _ to?”

“Right. Aren’t you tired from practice? Not that we don’t  _ want _ you here,” Roger added quickly, sending a glare Johnson’s way. She sniffed and held her chin up proudly. 

“You’re still wearing your quidditch stuff,” Spinnet helpfully pointed out. 

“Yeah, well.” Andre coughed into his fist awkwardly, avoiding eye contact. “Someone needs to make sure you don’t do something stupid.”

“Rest assured!” One of the twins called out. “We will  _ absolutely _ do something stupid!”

* * *

The thing was, Yusei  _ lived  _ for flying. But  _ damn,  _ Jaden was  _ fast.  _

He was pretty relieved that they were on the same team, Yusei thought as he watched Jaden zip around Johnson and Spinnet —whom were cornering Roger as he raced toward the goalposts with the quaffle in hand— and batted a spell-softened bludger at them, making them scatter quickly and leaving the goalposts wide-open, as Lee Jordan was doing a rather poor job of playing Keeper. 

“Have some House pride, Yuki!” George Weasley, who was playing Seeker, hollered, and Yusei saw Jaden grin briefly in response before zipping away again. 

“He  _ does _ have House pride!” Patricia, Yusei’s team’s Seeker, called back tauntingly. “He and Fred are honorary Ravenclaws, now, remember?” 

“Yeah, yeah, piss off then, Stimpson!”

“Yusei, buddy! How am I supposed to fly  _ one-handed on this thing?! _ ” Joey streamed past, screaming as he went upside down on his broom while still clutching his Beater’s bat. 

“Try to slow down, Joey!” Yusei yelled, chasing after him. 

“Don’t  _ help _ him, Yusei!”

“ _ Down with the Gryffindors! _ ” Roger roared, before choking on his spit and having a coughing fit. Fred laughed so hard he almost fell off his broom. 

Once Yusei helped Joey turn his broom upright and maintain his balance, and Andre had had his fill of yelling at them for their recklessness, gameplay continued ferociously. He and Roger wove in and out, passing the quaffle to get to their goalpost before the Gryffindor girls stole it back from them. Patricia and George went neck and neck, trying to throw the other off of their trail while keeping an eye out for their modified snitch. Joey was flying one-handed. Even Lee Jordan was getting better at blocking goals, giving Fred less opportunities to mock him as time went on. 

Then, Yusei saw as Jaden, in a sudden burst of speed, went zooming after something small and golden, and realized with mounting horror that he had his bat raised high above his head as he reached it. Before Yusei could tell him to stop, Jaden brought down his bat on the snitch and, with a loud  _ crack _ , sent it tumbling down to the pitch below. 

They all stared at the twitching golden ball on the ground for a moment, then turned to look at Jaden. 

He blinked back. “What?”

“ _ What’re you doing?! _ ” Johnson and Roger were both yelling, Roger going down to pick up the snitch tenderly in his hands while Johnson berated Jaden and shouted, “ _ Is there a brain in that head of yours?! _ ” Andre seemed to be having a migraine as he went over to Roger and the fallen snitch. 

“ _ How did you even hit it?! _ ”

“I don't know. You said to hit the flying ball, so I did!”

“Not  _ that _ flying ball, Jaden! And you, Joey! Quit laughing!”

“Man, that’s so confusing!” Jaden put his hands behind his head. “Why not just have  _ one _ flying ball and leave it at that?” Johnson looked murderous. 

“Okay. Okay, everyone,” Spinnet flew over, raising her hands placatingly. “I think that’s enough quidditch for today. Don’t we all have exams to study for?”

“Don’t remind me,” Fred said, drifting lazily downwards. 

Patricia almost looked like she was wilting as her feet touched the ground. “I’m seriously going to cry.”

“You already have,” Roger pointed out. 

“This poor snitch…” Andre whimpered, gingerly holding one of its delicate, torn-off wings. 

“As promised, we ended up doing something stupid,” George said matter-of-factly. 

“You should’ve taken that break when we told you to,” Lee Jordan quipped. 

Joey laughed louder, rolling off his low-lying broom and onto the ground. 

Slowly, their group made to head back up to the castle, and as they walked side by side, Yusei noticed that Jaden’s smile hadn’t once faded. If anything, it’d gotten brighter. 

“What’s up?” he asked. 

Jaden shook his head, then said, “Oh, nothing. I was just thinking how fun today was. Being with everyone.”

“Really? Even though you broke one of the school’s snitches?”

“I already said I was sorry!”

“They’re made out of  _ gold, _ Jaden.”

Jaden nudged him with his shoulder. “I get it already!” 

Then he laughed, and Yusei said, “What’s so funny?”

And Jaden, he looked up at the sky with its clouds and its never-ending blueness, grinning as he said, “I guess I’m just happy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i dunno what happened,,,,, i wrote most of this in a day and the last fourth of it over the last couple of days,,,,,, even tho i have an app due on friday?????? //cries
> 
> okay now ill actually be busy being a good student bye!!!


	8. (Year 1) Yugi: *cries* i love my friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which the end of the year has arrived, some worlds collide, and yugi turns a year older

“Alright, lads! End of the year!” Joey clapped once, standing at the entrance of their train compartment. “How’re we feeling?” 

Jaden was leaning his head against the window, as if he was trying to catch a glimpse of the castle from Hogsmeade station. “Aw, I already miss it,” he sighed. 

Syrus also sighed from the seat next to him. “Me too,” he said, downcast. They both sighed again in unison and slumped against each other. 

Yusei, sitting on the floor, placed a newly shuffled deck of cards on the ground. “Hey, Joey? I thought you wanted to play Exploding Snap. Get over here.”

Joey sat heavily across from him. “Nice! Ready to get your butt whooped Yus’?”

“I mean. If you say so.”

“Haha, Yusei doesn’t think you can beat him!” Syrus singsonged, pointing a finger mockingly at the Gryffindor. 

“Why you—!”

Yugi smiled, sitting with his back against the window in his own corner of the compartment. With the Millenium Puzzle in hand, pulsing with what he wanted to think was its own warmth, he said, “What about you, Joey?” The other boy looked away from where he and Syrus had puffed up their chests and were —subsequently— sizing each other up, and Yugi laughed lightly. “You seem really excited.” 

Joey beamed. “Of course I am!” He went rummaging through his jacket pockets and pulled out a carefully folded piece of lined white paper. “It’s a letter from my li’l sister! I’m gonna go see her over break,” and his smile turned into something fonder as he tucked the letter away again. “I haven’t seen her in a while, so.” 

“That sounds fun,” Yusei commented, wearing a small smile of his own.

“Yeah,” Joey rubbed his nose, suddenly embarrassed. He split the deck of cards in half between him and Yusei as he asked, face kind-of pink, “What’re _your_ plans for the summer, Yusei?”

“Me?” Yusei thought for a second. “I don’t think I have any.”

“ _What?!_ How can you not have _any_ plans for the break? It’s summer vacation!”

“I realize that, bu—”

“The cards!” Syrus cut in, waving his hands frantically. “The cards’ll explode if you guys don’t move fast enough! I can only take so many explosions, you guys!” Joey yelped and flipped over the topmost card in his half of the deck. “Yusei, your turn!”

“Is it? I hadn’t realized,” Yusei replied with just the barest hint of sarcasm, then flipped the top card of his deck. “Snap,” he said immediately, then continued as he claimed Joey’s face-up card and his own and set them off to the side, “maybe I’ll go get more Duel Monsters cards.” 

“Oh! You all should come to my Gramps’ shop over the summer!” Yugi’s hands fiddled with the Puzzle as he avoided everyone’s eyes. “You could come over to my house…” he trailed off.

“Sure!” said Joey. 

“ _Snap!_ ” said Syrus at the same time. 

Joey and Syrus looked at each other. Then, Joey sidled closer to the Hufflepuff. “So,” he said with a smirk, “didn’t we say something about ‘no backseat gaming,’ Sy?”

Syrus glared back with a certain gleam in his eyes. “Maybe you’d be winning if you’d let me ’backseat game,’ _Joseph._ ”

“Break it up,” Yusei said tiredly. “I’ll deal you in, too, Syrus, and then you can help me make Joey lose, okay?”

“Hey!”

He shifted. “And that sounds fun, Yugi. We can find some spell and trap cards for Joey, and maybe he’ll finally be competitive as a player,” he finished. 

“ _Hey._ ”

“I’d like to come over too!” Syrus called out. “Here,” he dug out a piece of parchment paper and a quill from his trunk and held it out, “write down your address so that I can floo over. Muggles have fireplaces, don’t they?”

“Wha…” Yugi blinked. “Fireplace? What?”

Syrus paused, squinting slowly back at him. “Floo? Like, Floo powder? For house calls and traveling?”

“In the _fireplace?_ ”

“Well, yeah! Where else?”

Jaden let out a loud laugh, shaking his head. “ _Wizards._ ”

“Syrus,” Yusei explained gently, “non-magic people don’t have Floo powder. We use telephones, instead. As for traveling, we have plenty of methods for getting around, like cars and buses and motorcycles. Things like that, see?”

“Telephone…” Syrus said, like he was trying the word out. “Sounds weird. What is it?”

A beat of silence passed. 

“Guys,” Joey spoke up. “Guys, I don’t have a fireplace.”

“Come to think of it, neither do I.”

“Me neither.”

They all turned to look at Jaden, who looked back and said, “But… but guys, how does Santa get you your presents?”

Having explained telephones and keeping out any mention of Santa being real or fake or existing at all, they exchanged numbers, witnessed three rather destructive rounds of Exploding Snap go by, and heard Jaden yell, “I’ll get you one day, Yugi Mutou!” after a sound loss and one intense duel, and the Hogwarts Express came to a whistling stop at King’s Cross Station. 

The first off was Syrus, running to throw his arms around a beautiful blue-haired lady as his third-year brother, Zane, stuck his nose up in the air at him, followed by Yusei, who came to a stop in front of an older woman with a warm expression on her face. Jaden and Joey stumbled on each other as they pored over a map of the London Underground, and Yugi fondly watched each of his friends for a moment. 

He turned back to the train behind him, thinking of September, the cold rush of wind when he stuck his head out the window and watched his parents become smaller and smaller in the distance. Thinking of the weight hanging on his neck, how its pieces had come together under his fingers while he curled up alone in his compartment, how it came _alive_ in his hands. That moment in the train, that gave him his Puzzle, that granted his wish…

(That gave him his friends.) 

((It was, really, the most magical thing. More than the wands and the Giant Squids and the flying broomsticks. His _friends._ ))

So, perhaps a bit foolishly, he muttered to the Hogwarts Express, to the Spirit of the Millenium Puzzle, to the tiles under his feet, a soft _thank you._

The Puzzle pulsed once under his fingertips, like it was saying _you’re welcome_ back. 

“Dad?” He heard Jaden ask. 

Yugi turned to find him stiffened and still in a man’s arms. Jaden’s father was —surprisingly— a businessman dressed to the nines, though he didn’t seem it when he let out a boisterous laugh and clapped his son once, hard, on the back. “How are you, my boy?”

Jaden stumbled, then straightened up and scratched his temple. “I’m fine, I guess,” he said. “What’re you doing here, Dad?”

“Shouldn’t I want to see my son return home from his boarding school? What’s it called, Hagtarts? It’s a big moment!” 

Jaden pursed his lips. 

“Just one of those things a parent can’t miss!” 

His dad beamed as Jaden opened his mouth to reply, then shut it, then said after a long pause, glaring down at his shoes, “Okay.” 

His dad’s smile fell slightly.

“Yugi!” A gentle hand came down on Yugi’s shoulder, and he was suddenly being smothered in smooches by his mother. 

“ _Okaasan!_ ” He replied, trying to fight off both his mother’s attacks and his resulting mortification. “ _Okaasan,_ all my friends are watching, cut it out!”

Mrs. Mutou put her hands on her hips, clicking her tongue. “ _Mou_ , I can’t miss my own son? Yugi, I haven’t seen you in fifty billion years!”

“You saw me in January!” 

“That’s too long!” She pulled him into a hug, and this time Yugi let himself melt into it. He was shocked when she sniffled into his shoulder. “You’re only eleven. I was supposed to have you until you were eighteen, at least.” She pulled away with watery eyes, holding him at arm’s length. “Look at you. You’re still so small.”

Yugi flushed. “ _I’m not small!_ ”

“Oh, but you are!” She wiped her eyes and hugged him again. “My sweet baby boy!”

“ _Okaasan!_ ”

Ignoring him, she looked around the train station platform. “Now, friends, you say? Why don’t you introduce me to them?”

Joey, who had been snickering the entire time this exchange was happening, stepped forward with his hand outstretched. “Nice to meet you, ma’am,” he said, suddenly a gentleman for the first time never. “My name is Joey Wheeler.”

(“ _‘Ma’am_ ,’ he says,” Syrus muttered to Yusei, who didn’t say anything but grinned in response.)

“That’s Syrus and Yusei,” Joey nodded at them, and they took the cue to step closer to the Mutous. 

“Hi,” Syrus said shyly. 

Yugi’s mother clapped her hands together. “My, what sweet boys you all are!”

“Yeah… real sweet,” Yugi added dryly. He didn’t think his mom would notice, but Joey’s grin took on its usual shit-eating qualities and Yusei coughed hastily. 

“And me, too!” Jaden had —at some point— shaken off his dad, and was now bounding over to grab Yugi’s mom’s hand. “My name is Jaden Yuki!”

She laughed. “It’s very nice to meet all of you.”

“And you. My name is Martha.” The older woman that Yusei had been talking to came over and placed a hand on Yusei’s head, effectively trapping him in place as the two women began talking. 

“Masami Mutou. I take it you must be Yusei’s mother…”

“Hey, Joey,” Jaden said. “My dad’s gonna take me home, so I can’t—”

“It’s a-okay!” Joey raised his hands. “You don’t get to spend much time with him, right? You should go.” When Jaden’s worried expression didn’t ease, he added, “I’m serious. I’ll be fine. Go.”

Jaden nodded, finally, and told him, “Get home safe, okay?” before running after his dad. “Happy summer, you guys!”

“Bye Jaden!”

“What was _that_ about?” Yugi asked. 

“We were planning on taking the Underground together, but…” Joey trailed off. He visibly perked up. “Nah, I’ll be fine!”

“B-but Joey! I don’t think it’s really safe—!”

Joey gave him a thumbs-up. “Don’t worry about it, Yug’! I’m a big kid, I can handle myself.”

“Oh, yes, very big, aren’t you. You know, at twelve years old,” Syrus mocked. 

“Oh, I’m sorry, Yugi! Did you happen to hear a tiny squeaking sound?” Joey shrugged. “It sounded _really_ obnoxious, but might’ve just been my imagination.” 

Syrus seemed ready to launch himself at him when Yugi’s mom sternly asked, “Joey, you weren’t thinking of traveling home _by yourself,_ were you?” At Joey’s deer-in-the-headlights look, she shook her head. “No! Absolutely not! Luv, tell me where you live and I’ll drive you home myself.”

“I-it’s really okay, Mrs. Mutou—”

“I don’t think you’re gonna change her mind, Joey,” Yugi said very helpfully. 

“You’re really not,” she agreed. 

And that was how Joey found himself safely strapped in the backseat of Yugi’s mom’s car.

* * *

Joey came over a lot. 

As it turned out, the apartment building where he lived with his dad was only a couple of blocks away from the Kame Game Shop, so Joey took every day that he could to come over and visit and drool over new cards with Yugi. He even helped out around the shop. It was nice, Yugi thought. It was fun, he also thought. 

But he got this _really weird feeling_ of two worlds colliding where they shouldn’t collide the first time punkish-and-slightly-vulgar Joey met strict-and-orderly Tea and the princess-like Miho. Aside from the fact that Joey looked very quite strange without his robes on, how Joey immediately fell over himself trying to impress Miho without using magic was both hilarious and almost disappointing. For some reason, Yugi had believed that his fellow wizard would have been able to resist her charms, but he’d been proven wrong. 

Despite the weirdness of it all, their meeting went without a hitch, although Tea did pull Yugi aside to whisper, “Doesn’t he look a little bit like _trouble_ to you?”

Yugi had grinned back, “Yeah, but the _good_ kind of trouble.”

Tea’s response was to stare at him, then at Joey before saying, “I mean, if you say so.” She warmed up to him immensely the first time he brought his younger sister —Serenity, who was kind and sweet and absolutely _adored_ her older brother— around. 

Yusei, too, occasionally came around with two younger, redheaded kids in tow —Rally, who stood tall and proud in all his seven year old, almost-meter-and-a-quarter-tall glory, and Crow, who was turning eleven and didn’t look like someone who should be named Crow. Rally liked to follow Joey around as he helped restock the store, and held cardboard boxes full of inventory to be shelved. Crow liked to stare, gap-mouthed, at the Duel Monsters display along one side of the shop (and, Yugi had to admit, it _was_ a pretty gorgeous display. Sometimes he joined him.)

As for Yusei—

“I play the trap card, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow!”

Currently, Yusei was negating Joey’s attacking Baby Dragon, and Joey was saying, “Ah, crud.”

Yusei grinned in response. “I also activate the trap card Limiter Overload, and Special Summon Speed Warrior to the field.”

Rally gasped. “Oh _no! Joey!_ ”

“Don’t worry about it, kid, I got this!”

“ _Sure,_ you do,” Tea said sarcastically. 

Joey turned to look at her, pointing a finger at her accusingly. “Why do you always gotta bring me down, huh?”

Miho cheered, “Go, Yusei!”

“Wha— Not you too, Miho!”

Yugi chuckled, hanging up another set of card packs as they dueled. 

“ _Masami!_ ” He heard his Gramps calling, “I can’t believe you’re making that boy work on his _birthday!_ ”

“ _If he wants to eat, then he works, Sugoroku-san!_ ” Yugi’s mom hollered back, and he grimaced. 

He made to yell something in response, but then his mom thrusted a phone at him apologetically. He grabbed it. “H-hello?”

“Yugi?” Jaden’s voice crackled and cracked over the phone. “This is Yugi, right?”

“Ye—”

“ _I’m sorry I can’t make it out to your birthday!_ ” He let out a large sigh. “I tried— I really did _try_ to convince my parents to let me go—”

“—I know you did, it’s fine—”

“—it’s not fine! For once, I actually have people who want me around, and they still didn’t let me go!” 

“Jaden…”

Jaden made a frustrated noise. “I’m sorry, Yugi,” he finally said, quiet and down in a way Yugi’s never heard from him before. “I really wanna be there for you.” His voice brightened. “Hey, maybe I can ask Syrus if there are any special wizard ways to sneak out of my house! Oh, you know the other day his _head_ was sticking out of the fireplace?”

A few moments later, he hung up with a final “Happy birthday!”, and Yugi returned to the rest of the group, where Joey was still holding on strong and even seemed to have Yusei on the ropes for a bit. Maybe, he might even… win? But then, Yusei Synchro summoned Nitro Warrior and it went downhill from there.

“Good fight!” Yugi said afterwards, patting Joey on the back consolingly.

“Aw, thanks, Yug’,” Joey rubbed the back of his head with a wince, “nice to have _someone_ ,” he gave Tea and Miho a _look,_ “be supportive of me.” 

Tea rolled her eyes. Miho just blinked, smiling her usual air-headed smile. 

“I’m supportive, Joey!” Rally piped up.

“I know you are, buddy!” Joey high-fived him. “Thanks to you, too!”

Rally pointed a threatening finger, “You better watch out, Yusei! Joey will definitely get you next time!”

Yusei raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms and, being very careful not to let himself smile at all, responded, “Shouldn’t you be on _my_ side?”

Joey stuck out his tongue at him. Rally followed suit. “No way!” They said in unison. 

The bell hanging on the door jingled, followed by, “Don’t tell me you guys started _without_ me!” All of them turned to see Syrus walk through the doorway, then stop and look around the shop with a kind of amazed air about him that made Yugi feel both slightly embarrassed and proud at the same time. Face red, Yugi distracted himself by going to take the cake from his mom in the backroom. 

Joey pulled Syrus into a headlock, messing up his light blue hair and not giving a single care about his shouts of protest nor his resulting threats. “And why the hell would we wait for _you?_ You’re the one showing up late, aren’t ya?”

Yusei glanced at the clock on the wall, eyebrows furrowing at the time, and he added, “He’s not the latest, though. What’s taking _Jaden_ so long?” 

Yugi shooed the borrowed playmats from the table where they had been dueling, setting down his carefully frosted cake in the middle. “He just called. He can’t make it,” he replied simply, and tried not to sound sad about it. 

Yusei quieted, only uttering, “Huh.”

Yugi’s mouth twisted into a type of grimace. “Yeah.”

Syrus suddenly shook Joey off and stretched, glancing around nonchalantly, “Now, where are those Duel Monsters cards?” He grinned at Yugi with a borderline manic smile, tapping his fingers together and looking every bit like a cartoon villain. “There’s not a ‘friends and family’ discount, is there? Or maybe I can just grab some cards for _free_ , since we’re _buddies,_ right, Yugi?” 

Joey blinked at him, confused, before his eyes widened in brief realization. He grabbed him around the neck again, this time choking him for real as he said, “You're the one that’s supposed to be giving gifts! This is _Yugi’s_ birthday party, not _yours!_ ”

“Go, Joey!” Rally cried, even as Yusei dragged him away from the fight. 

Miho squealed when Joey and Syrus tumbled into her, and the two of them began apologizing profusely as she huffed and tapped her foot, and she only accepted their apologies after they promised her their slices of cake.

“You wanna come join us now, Crow?” Yusei called. Crow had yet to draw himself away from the display case, but nodded to show he heard.

“It’s _so pretty,_ Yusei,” he said.

“I know it is, Crow.”

“The _Blackwings,_ Yusei!”

“I know, Crow.”

Yugi chuckled at the growing pandemonium, grinning at Tea when she joined him in leaning against the counter. “Hey.”

“Hi,” she said back, and curled into herself slightly. “You really did make a lot of friends, huh?”

“Yeah,” Yugi watched them all talking and laughing and being so, so lively, loud, and bright beyond compare. “I really did.”

“It’s… That’s good. I’m happy for you.” Something in Tea’s voice made his eyes shoot towards her, so she smiled at him, and added, “Just… don’t you ever forget about me, okay?”

Yugi paused, looking at her and thinking how absurd a request that was. “Of course. How could I ever forget about _you?_ ”

Tea winked at him, making him flush as she teased, “Just checking!” She bumped shoulders with him. “Happy birthday, Yugi.”

And, because Yugi’s mind had gone scrambled and stupid, he replied, “You too, Tea.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the world has changed quite a bit since the last time i posted, huh? i hope everyone's doing okay. i wont have school until the end of april.... but i guess that means i get to post more?? next chapter should be up soon. i just need to edit it so until then pls stay healthy and stay safe y'all. <3


	9. (Year 1) Yugi: game start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which miho has her tournament

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kind of dark issues get touched on. tags will also be updated.

“Ahh, I’m so nervous!”

Tea crossed her arms at the other girl. “C’mon, Miho. You’re never nervous.”

“No, I’m really nervous this time!” Miho latched onto her dad’s arm as he led their group through the arrival crowd at Tokyo International Airport. “Papa! I’m feeling nauseous! Can you  _ please _ buy me a drink from that shop over there?”

“Anything for my talented little girl!” He patted her on the head, then went off to buy the drink for her. 

Joey dug through his backpack urgently, pulling out a bottle of water. “Miho! Please take my water!” He thrust it towards her.

She stared blankly back. “But Joey… you’ve already drinken out of this. That’s gross.” He stumbled back like she’d shot him in the chest with her words.

Tea rolled her eyes. “Unbelievable.” She turned her critical gaze onto Yugi, who flinched. “Don’t you agree, Yugi?”

“Um, well, you see…” Yugi scratched his cheek. “Sure,” he finally said. Before she could ask him anything more, he took the chance to say, “By the way, Miho. Thanks again for inviting us to come with you to Capmon Worlds!” Joey nodded in agreement. “It seems like it’s gonna be fun!”

“Don’t remind me!” Miho clapped her hands over her ears, indeed looking a little bit green as she spoke. “This is gonna be the  _ second biggest _ moment of my life! If I lose…” She shook her head. “Ahh! I don’t even wanna think about it!”

“Uh.  _ Second _ biggest?” Tea asked. 

Miho blinked at her innocently. “Well, of course! The biggest moment is going to be when I eventually marry,” her eyes went starry, “a  _ prince. _ ”

“Right,” Tea monotoned. “Why did I even bother asking?” 

Miho’s dad came back at that moment bearing snacks for all of them, along with Miho’s drink. “Alright, kids, is everyone ready to get out of here, drop our bags, and start exploring Tokyo?”

“Yes!”

Tokyo was one of those busy, neon-colored places that Yugi usually only saw in his mother’s artsy romance films. While it was attractive on screen, the camera couldn’t capture what it was like to want to look at everything at once. Yugi had his face pressed against the glass of the bullet train they’d boarded, and his eyes were getting watery from how long he’d kept them open, but he didn’t  _ care.  _ It was just so  _ beautiful, _ from the light of the setting sun glinting off of Tokyo Tower to the smoothness of the train under their feet to the careful strokes of characters that he couldn’t (and probably would never) understand. Yugi loved all of it. 

(But he wasn’t going to say that out loud. How embarrassing.)

“Speaking of— Yugi!” Miho’s dad’s voice pulled him away from the window, and he sat back down properly in his seat to listen as Mr. Nosaka asked, “Where was it that your parents grew up again?” Tea, Joey, and Miho watched him curiously, also awaiting his answer. 

“Oh, uh,” Yugi thought for a moment. “My mother grew up in… I believe it was, er, a place called Domino City, sir. I dunno about my dad.”

“Domino City, huh? I’ve never been there myself, but I heard it used to be a thriving, industrial development community before…” Miho’s dad looked pensive, putting his fist to his mouth. “Well. You all were probably too young to remember, but there was an explosion a little over half a decade ago that wiped out the entire city. Left the survivors to fend for themselves. No one knows exactly what happened. I mean, there are some theories here and there, but…” He noticed how they were all watching him with wide, watery eyes. “But that’s a story for another time!” 

“That’s so sad,” Miho muttered.

“Scary, too,” Tea added. “No one knows what happened?”

Yugi nodded, gulping. “You don’t think—”

“No! It can’t!” Joey grabbed at his hair. “I’m too young and good-looking to d—  _ oof! _ ”

Tea had her fist raised from knocking him in the head with it. “Do you ever think before you talk?!” she scolded. “No, wait, don’t answer that.”

“H-hey now,” Mr. Nosaka raised his hands placatingly, sounding nonplussed as he said, “why don’t we all just calm down for a bit? Here, we’ll get off at the next stop and get some treats, okay? I think I remember there being some pretty cool vending machines being installed last time we came here…”

They were chasing down a walking Coca-Cola vending machine in one of Tokyo’s neighborhoods when Miho gasped, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk. She pointed, bouncing on the balls of her feet, at a nondescript building across a darkened and empty parking lot. “That’s where the tournament’s going to be tomorrow! Papa, doesn’t it look  _ perfect?! _ ” 

“It does! But not as perfect as  _ you, _ my cute princess!”

“Aw, Papa!” They shared a moment of father-daughter adoration, and Yugi looked at the building and thought  _ oh, that’s really… _

“It’s ugly!” Tea whisper-coughed into her fist.

“ _ I _ think it looks wonderful,” huffed Joey. 

“ _ Really. _ ”

“ _ Yes. _ ” 

Though, Yugi noted, Joey was being very careful to avoid gazing at it directly.

“Oh, oh, I know!” Miho clapped her hands together cheerfully. “We should get a closer look at the arena! Let’s get inside!”

Yugi opened his mouth, shut it, then opened it again. “Is— is that allowed?”

“I don’t see the harm in getting a bit closer.” Mr. Nosaka tapped his finger against his chin. “We better hurry, though. It’s starting to get dark.”

“Well then, what are we waiting for?” Joey put his hands behind his head, and casually began making his way toward the arena.

Tea bumped into him and ran ahead, giggling when he stumbled. “What’s with the cool act, huh? Trying to cover up the fact that you’re  _ scaaared? _ ”

“You wish!” 

He made to chase after her, but then Miho snatched his arm and held on tight. “Yay! Let’s go, Joey!” And Joey melted.

“Yep! Woo-hoo! Arena, here we come!”

They all disappeared quickly into the entrance. “Best not to keep them waiting, Yugi,” Miho’s dad smiled kindly, slowing his strides to allow Yugi to catch up.

Yugi nodded, and hurried (as much as he could on his admittedly, considerably shorter legs) to walk alongside him, but saw something peculiar as he did so. It was only a bit of light, glinting off of someone’s glasses in the distance, that brought his attention to them, but he couldn’t see their face, shrouded in darkness as they were. And there was something, something in the way they held themselves and huddled close to a secluded wall, far from Yugi and Mr. Nosaka, that made a cold pit of unease settle into Yugi’s stomach. 

But, he blinked. And he saw nothing.  _ What…? _

“They wouldn’t let us in!” Miho came stomping back to her dad, pouting and huffing with Joey and Tea in tow. 

“I’m sorry, darling,” her dad chuckled, ruffling her hair. “I guess you’ll just have to wait until tomorrow then.”

She groaned. “But I won’t have a  _ feel _ for the atmosphere, Papa! How am I supposed to play in a totally new area?” A note of genuine anxiousness entered her voice. 

“Just like you always do, Miho! Amazingly, with flair and grace!” Tea gave her a sideways hug and grinned when she smiled. “Right, Yugi? Joey?”

“Yep!” Joey swiped his nose with his thumb. “No doubt about it!”

Yugi gave her a thumbs-up. “No doubt at all.”

“Now then, why don’t we all get back to the hotel so that we’ll all be well rested for tomorrow?” called Miho’s dad. He began walking down the street, so they all went after him in hot pursuit, though Yugi couldn’t help from taking one last glance back at that secluded wall. Maybe it had just been his imagination…

But hadn’t it seemed like that person had been watching them?

* * *

When they were younger, and before Hogwarts and the Millenium Puzzle and Joey and everything happened, it had just been Tea and Yugi and Miho, and Yugi and Miho —from age six to age eleven— would spend much of their time kicking their legs back and forth under the table as they challenged each other to Capmon chess. Yugi would argue that they were very evenly matched, and it was often a toss-up as to who would win, as was the case when he was playing against Tea at Dance Dance Revolution. He would  _ also _ argue that he knew each and every single one of Miho’s plays and strategies, having seen her grow as a player and having been there to test her with his own (quite formidable) skills. But even he could say, now, at twelve years old, that he had never seen her play  _ quite like this.  _

Watching her singlehandedly decimate her opponents in the way she was made Yugi suddenly  _ very glad _ to not be the one playing against her. 

With a final move and command of her Meowball, purely for the sake of using her Meowball, Miho swept away the quarter-finals. She held out her hand daintily for a handshake with her last opponent of the day, a hint of triumph in her smile as the crowd cheered her name. Yugi, Tea, and Joey all ran down from the stands where they’d been sitting and went to congratulate her in the waiting area, and upon seeing each other, Tea and Miho immediately grabbed onto each other’s hands and began shouting.

“The semi-finals! I made it to the  _ semi-finals! _ ”

“We know you did! It’s  _ amazing! _ ”

“You were great out there, Miho!” Yugi held his hand up for a high-five, and was instead pulled into their circle to join them in celebrating. Likewise, Joey was turning a slow and steady red from holding onto Miho’s hand. 

“That’s my girl!” Mr. Nosaka said when he saw them. 

He held out his arms to catch Miho around the waist when she threw herself at him with a loud, “ _ Papa! Did you see me?! _ ”

“I  _ did, _ sweetheart! My clever girl! Your mama’s going to be so proud of you when she hears!” They separated to an arm’s length apart. “We should celebrate! What would you like to do, Miho?”

She didn’t even have to think before answering, “Miho wants to go shopping in Harajuku!”

“Marvelous! Kids, why don’t you gather your things and we’ll get on our way!”

The crowd in the lobby was full of people clamoring around various participants in the tournament that day. From what Yugi could see, there were different people from all parts around the world. He saw a kid with a mane of black hair --who couldn't be much older than Rally-- being surrounded by bodyguards as cameras flashed around him. Another guy was shirtless... for some reason. A boy around Yugi's age was leaning against the wall, eyes narrowing when they made contact with Yugi's-- but Yugi was just looking at his earrings, honest! They were shaped like dice, or he was hanging dice off of his earlobes, and it was super cool. Fighting through the crowd as they were, Yugi found himself bumping into a tall man with an American-themed bandana who growled at him. It really wasn't called Worlds for nothing, was it? 

Yugi sighed in relief once they got outside, then asked, looking around with increasing alarm, “H-hey, where did Miho go?” They all stared at each other, shocked, then ran back in to look for her.

Miho’s dad was the one who found her and dragged her outside, for once seeming very genuinely irritated as he chastised her for lagging behind. “Don’t you ever make me worry like that again!” he said as he unlocked his rented car.

She kicked a rock on the pavement. “I was just talking to the guy I’m going against tomorrow. He was wishing me luck.”

“You’re not supposed to talk to strangers!”

“He was being  _ nice, _ ” she insisted. 

“Still!”

Miho’s dad switched, at that point, to arguing with her in Japanese from the front of the car as he drove, and Yugi, Joey, and Tea —who were sitting in the back— sat awkwardly and listened. 

“Psst, Yug’” Joey hissed. “Are we in trouble?”

“Joey, I only know how to say ‘food’ and ‘bathroom’ in Japanese,” Yugi hissed back. “If I knew, I would tell you.”

“Shut up, shut up, both of you shut up! They’ll hear us!” said Tea. 

When Miho’s dad —finally,  _ finally— _ parked, Miho was sitting low in her seat and, once the car came to a full stop, she unlocked the car, hopped out, opened the side door, and grabbed Tea by the arm and ran off with her towards one of the shops, ignoring her dad’s “ _ Miho! _ ” 

“That girl…” he muttered, then let out a huff and smiled. “I’m sorry about that, boys. Ready to run after them?”

“Y-yes, sir!” They both squeaked. 

Miho’s dad led the two boys to the boutique that Tea and Miho had disappeared into, and when they went inside, it seemed to Yugi like they had stepped into an entirely different dimension filled with designer articles of clothing. Some of the pieces, too, were  _ extreme, _ like they were based off of a mix of Victorian-style and vampire anime, while others seemed like things you would put on a doll. Did Harajuku girls often dress like dolls? 

Out of curiosity, he tried to imagine Miho wearing one of these extravagant outfits and thought that it  _ would _ actually suit her very well. Then, his mind jumped to  _ Tea _ dressing anything like that, and his face became very heated all of a sudden, so he clapped his hands over his cheeks to cool them down. 

Idly, Joey picked up a price tag before blanching. “Yo, Yugi… Is 200,000 of these things equal to a lot in pounds?”

“I— I think so, Joey.”

He dropped it hastily. 

A couple minutes later, they saw Tea peek at them from over a rack of frilly skirts. “Oh! Yugi! Joey!”

“Tea!”

She came out, grabbing at Yugi’s hands and looking him in the eye urgently. “I’m glad I found you! Have either of you seen Miho?” Her gaze shifted to somewhere on the ground as she said, “I think I made her angry by talking to her about her dad, and she left the store… Did you pass her on your way in? Is her dad with her now?” 

“No, we didn’t…” Yugi’s eyebrows furrowed together as he glanced outside. There was no one standing there. He felt cold again, though there were no strange lights or shadowed walls this time. 

“Mr. Nosaka!” Joey called, getting the man’s attention from across the room. “Tea said that Miho just left the store!”

So, they left the boutique to find her, but the district was bustling with people, with all those people wearing larger-than-life fashions, and Miho was twelve years old and a thin slip of a girl. So when they left the boutique to find her, they found nothing.

Miho was gone.

* * *

Yugi spent the night grasping tightly onto Tea’s hands as she cried in their hotel room, with Joey on her other side with an arm around her shoulders. They were waiting for some kind of news —any kind of news, really— as the hours ticked by, and countless phone calls from Miho’s dad to the local police went by, and sometime around 8:16 in the morning, when Joey’s eyes have stayed stubbornly dry all night and Yugi’s have gone red with exhaustion, Tea croaked, “This is all my fault.”

Yugi let his eyes close. “Shut the bloody hell up, Gardner,” he heard Joey say gruffly. 

“It is though,” she sobbed, and let go of Yugi’s hand for the first time in hours to cover her mouth and her face. “I’m horrible,” she whispered, wide-eyed, into her fists. 

Yugi slipped off of the bed, crouching in front of her and taking her hand back gently. “No.” He unfurled her fingers and held them in his own, taking note of every crease in her hand. “You’re not.”

“Yugi…”

“Trust me, Tea,” Joey said loudly, despite Mr. Nosaka snoring lightly in an armchair only three meters away. He flopped back onto the bed. “If you were  _ actually _ horrible, then I’d tell ya to your face, but the fact is, you’re not. Quit actin’ like you are.”

“It’s not your fault,” Yugi added, smiling as much as he could. He curled his pinky around hers. “Promise.” 

Tea looked between them like she didn’t know what to think, settling on, “You guys—”

Mr. Nosaka’s cellphone rang, making him jerk awake and almost out of his armchair. He accepted the call, and the three of them watched him with bated breath as his face went through several different emotions before he bolted out of the room. They all shared a shocked glance, then followed suit, collapsing into the backseat of his rental. The car came to a stop at a hospital, and Mr. Nosaka didn’t bother with parking as he ran inside and went to talk to the receptionist with a hint of hysteria in his tone. 

When he found out where she was, he bundled them into an elevator and they went up to see her, though Yugi found himself scrutinizing the various titled levels as they went by. He had no idea where they were going or what section of the hospital Miho had been placed in, and when they got to her door, Yugi almost didn’t want her dad to open it, like it was that one scientist’s cat, that was neither alive nor dead until one looked into the box, so until that box opened, until that door opened, Miho was neither alive nor dead, alive or dead, was she  _ okay— _

Miho’s doctor smiled kindly at them when they came in and said, in English, “She’s just been knocked out. We’ll keep her under watch for today for any lasting side-effects, but she should be good to leave by tomorrow morning.”

They all took a long nap in her room while waiting for her to wake up.

Yugi woke up at around three in the afternoon, no longer feeling so sick with anxiety and released adrenaline and realizing that he hadn’t eaten in maybe an entire day. As he headed down to the cafeteria using the directions a kind nurse had given him, he saw a TV with its channel set on the Capmon Worlds semi-finals. Since Miho hadn’t been there, the finals spot had gone to a lanky, glasses-wearing man who grinned, pleased as punch about having won by default. 

Yugi squinted at his image, wondering why he looked so familiar, and blinked when he realised that he was shadowssunsetcoldfearnot _ right _

something vital in Yugi snapped. A puzzle piece clicking into place. He felt a strange sensation, like he was being tucked away, a precious item being stored and preserved and locked. The last thing he saw, before everything went dark, was the face of Miho’s attacker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry miho


	10. (Year 1) Yugi(?): punishment game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which there is a game and a death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nothing especially gory!! but this is why the tags have been updated!! similar situations might be coming in the future, so let me know if i need to add any tags!! pls enjoy!!
> 
> OH YEAH DID YOU KNOW THIS FIC IS AT 105 KUDOS CURRENTLY?????? HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS I LOVE YALL SO MUCH

When Yugi finds him —Jun Warashibe, 23 years old, college graduate with a major in biochemical engineering, recently moved to Tokyo, plays board games with others religiously on Saturday nights, and an overall bastard— walking with his hands in his pockets, slipping into an alleyway, and exchanging items with a shadowed figure. They chat, and Warashibe nods, and then he walks away, weaving through parks and trees and slinking into other hidden nooks, and from where Yugi is standing at the top of an office building, Yugi can see him smirk and enter an abandoned building. 

He keeps on smirking up until the moment Yugi appears in front of him, and then his face contorts into a yelp, like Yugi is some kind of demon, and. 

Well. 

Perhaps he’s not _terribly_ wrong about that, because Yugi bares his teeth in a kind-of too wide grin of his own, lets purple tendrils slink out of the darkest corners of the building, and wonders, briefly, where exactly in this room had he kept Miho unconscious. 

“You… you’re the friend of that girl…” Warashibe slowly relaxes, nodding his head slightly with a tinge of nervousness. “My condolences for what happened. How unfortunate that she was unable to continue with the tournament.” Yugi wants his shadows to smother this man. 

“Is it? Were you not the one who took her out?” Yugi replies like they were having a conversation. He thinks, briefly, about how strange it was that he was holding a conversation with the man in fluent Japanese, but it’s merely a flitting thought. Yugi forgets it in the next moment, as he says, ignoring Warashibe’s panicked sputtering, “Still, I _must_ congratulate you on your win, Warashibe _-san_ .” He takes a couple steps forward, backing him against the wall. “Certainly, it must take _immense amounts_ of genius to pull off something so _clever._

“In fact…” He releases the hold on the rest of his shadows so that they consume their surroundings. A purple mist settles heavily over the room. Yugi gestures at a table next to him, where a Capsule Monsters chessboard is set up. “Are you interested in playing a Game?”

Warashibe’s shock morphs back into a smirk. “A game, huh?” He takes a complimentary seat at the table, examining the board. It’s a beginner’s stage, with few obstacles in the path to the golden eggs at the corners. 

“Not just _any_ game. A Shadow Game.” A silence rings out, and Yugi’s lips curl into a sneer as he says, “What is it? Are you really that scared of losing to me?”

“Tch. On the contrary.” His glasses glint, and he pushes them up the bridge of his nose with a finger. “It sounds interesting.” When Yugi only stares at him, immobile for a moment and face strangely blank, he adds, “ _Well?_ Aren’t we going to start?”

“I guess you aren’t all that interested in what you’re getting into, then. Fine by me.” Yugi wears his own unsettling almost-smile as he sits down and says, “Game start!” 

Warashibe’s first move is to place his level five monster on the board, and he cackles when Yugi puts down his own level three monster in response. He doesn’t seem to notice the way Yugi narrows his eyes when Warashibe’s monster destroys Yugi’s, nor did it seem that he would’ve cared. Yugi waits, wanting to—

—but he reels himself back in. Patience, A—

Yugi sets down another piece. A level four monster that his opponent easily takes out. _Patience,_ he tells himself.

Several more turns pass in this manner, then Warashibe —confident, cocky, arrogant beyond compare— falters. “Wha—?!”

There is no longer light in the room. When Yugi breathes out, he sees his breath in white puffs, curling. He wonders, as he leans over the table and mutters, “I win,” if it makes him look like a God. 

Warashibe’s face crumbles. “No!” He glances down at the board. 

All of his pieces are lined up diagonally, ready to be brought down by Yugi’s singular level two monster. Torido. “Yes,” he hisses. Yugi brings his finger to Torido’s head, gently stroking as it chirps. He says, “You know of Torido’s special ability, don’t you? That it, despite its inherent weakness at close-range, deals a devastating blow from further away?”

Warashibe is shaking his head. “No. No! I _can’t_ lose!” He stands, “I _refuse!_ ” He swipes his hand across the board and scatters the pieces onto the floor. 

Idly, Yugi watches them roll. The room grows ever colder, and his grin is back full-force as he announces, “The door of darkness has been opened.” He adds, sarcastically, “What a shame,” and gets up to pick up and examine his Torido piece. “The Shadow Game is meant to expose the darkness in one’s soul, and believe me,” he turns to face a trembling Warashibe, “you are not lacking in it. Your childish fear of losing, your disregard for others… For that, a _punishment_ is in order.” He drops Torido and, letting the piece —along with the other monsters— grow growl spit, steps back to watch Warashibe shrink against the wall. “Those beloved monsters of yours, Warashibe Jun… they seem to be hungry.”

Yugi disappears as Warashibe’s screams reverberate through the night.

* * *

For the life of him, Yugi could not keep his eyes open. 

It was to the point that even _Miho,_ sitting with her head tilted _in a hospital bed,_ asks him if he was alright, and seems further concerned when he waves her off. “You seem a bit peakish, Yugi.”

“No, really, I’m,” he yawns, “a-okay. I didn’t sleep well last night.” Although Yugi could’ve _sworn_ that he had conked out immediately once he got into bed, if he thought _really hard_ about it… there was this blank part of his memory. When _had_ he gone to sleep last night?

“Really?” Joey asks, eyebrows raised. “I slept like a baby.”

Tea, ignoring him, says with a concerned frown, “If you want to go take a nap, just say so, okay?” 

“Thanks,” Yugi smiles at her. “Hey, Miho,” he turns to his friend, “how’re _you_ feeling?”

“I’m okay…” she trails off. “Buuuut, I _am_ a bit tired.” Miho suddenly stretches, slumping forward and gently thunking her forehead against Joey’s shoulder, making him jerk and flush a bright red. “Joey,” she smiles against him, “will you go get me some tea from the cafeteria?” She leans back far enough to bat her eyelashes at him, smile gone and replaced by the slightest pout. “Please?”

Joey stands abruptly. “Y-yes!”

Yugi watches him leave the room, highly unimpressed, until he sees Miho nudge Tea out of the corner of his eye and Tea clears her throat. When he turns to look fully at her, she's pink-cheeked and looking up at him from under her eyelashes. “Yugi,” she says, biting her lip, “I’m kinda hungry too…”

Yugi feels wide awake all of a sudden. He scratches the back of his head, glancing away as he offers, “I can go get something for you from the cafeteria, if you want!” At her shy nod, he runs, Miho’s giggles and Tea’s squeals following him out of the room. 

Joey is carrying several bottled teas when Yugi meets him in the cafeteria, and they both share a defeated look as Yugi buys snacks for Tea. _We both let ourselves get played so easily,_ Yugi thinks as they make their shameful walk back to Miho’s room.

“We let ourselves get played, Yug’!” Joey huffs.

“Yeah…” Yugi blinks in surprise. “Mr. Nosaka!” 

Miho’s dad had gone to check Miho out of the hospital. Supposedly, there was a lot of paperwork involved, so that was why Yugi thought he’d been gone so long… but the hard glare in his eyes at the TV monitor in the hallway quickly debunks that theory.

“Wassup, Mr. Nosaka?” Joey runs ahead and skids to a stop next to the man, peering at the TV curiously. It seemed to be a news channel. Some kind of breaking news was being reported. 

Miho’s dad’s eyes soften upon seeing them. “Oh, hello boys. I see you were getting hungry,” he laughs lightly. “Let’s make sure to get some food before we go to the hotel and pack, okay?” He ruffles both of their hairs.

“Sure,” Joey agrees. Yugi nods as well, but lets them go ahead to make their way to the elevators at the end of the hallway. Yugi wants to see something, but what, he doesn’t know. Their voices get further. “What were you watching, sir?”

There. He feels a chill run down his spine. 

“Ah, nothing important, really… I’ll be glad to go back to the UK, though…” 

Yugi looks into the face of Jun Warashibe (age 23, biochemical engineering major, avid lover of board games) staring back at him from the monitor and knows, without understanding any of the Japanese characters flying by on the screen, that he was dead. 

“Yugi! C’mon!” Joey yells. Miho’s dad is holding the elevator doors open. 

“Uh...” He takes a final look back, but Warashibe’s face was gone. Instead, it has been replaced by an image of the boy with the black mane of hair that Yugi had seen in the lobby being crowned the Capmon World Champion. His small face was twisted into a gleeful grin as he was handed a large trophy. It was strange, disorienting. Like Warashibe was little more than a nightmare half-remembered. Yugi shakes himself. “Yes! I’ll be right there!”

•End of Year 1•

_BEEP!_

_BEEP!_

_BEEP!_

_BE—_

On September 1st, in a nice household located in Ottery St. Catchpole, Yuma Tsukumo blearily opens his eyes and, yawning, grabs his wand to swish away his alarm. He casts a lazy _tempus_ as he moves to get out of his hammock, then immediately falls out as he realises the time. 

10:51. 

The Hogwarts Express left every year at 11 o’clock on the dot. 

Yuma begins shoving everything in sight in his still unpacked trunk and yells down the stairs, “ _Kariii!_ ” 

His older sister answers back with a harsh, “ _What,_ Yuma?!”

“Why didn’t you wake me up?!”

“Honestly!” She scoffs, primly sipping a cup of tea as he tugs his almost-bursting trunk down to the kitchen with Lilly the toad in hand. “You’re telling me you want to go to _Hogwarts_ and you don’t even know how to set an _alarm?_ ”

He stops and turns to her sheepishly, a cold piece of buttered toast hanging out of his mouth. “I know how to set an alarm,” he mutters, then runs off to kiss their grandmother goodbye, and Kari rolls her eyes. 

“What’re you forgetting?” she calls as she pats down her robes and leaves through the front door. 

Yuma pokes his head out at her, eyebrows furrowed. He starts checking his pockets, saying, “Forgetting? I’m not forgetting—” then pauses. He runs back up to his room. 

“Told you!”

It’s carefully laid out next to his parents’ picture frame, up in the attic, and Yuma grins, grabbing it and placing it around his neck. He takes a deep breath, picks up his parents’ picture, and for a brief, horrible moment, wishes that they had at least stayed to see him off to school before going on their next expedition. The moment passes, and he shakes his head, clinging instead to how tightly his mother had wrapped her arms around him the night before and the warmth of his dad’s hand as he messed up Yuma’s hair. They were going on an adventure! He wouldn’t deny them that. 

Besides, wasn’t he about to start his own?

He bounds back down to where Kari was tapping her foot impatiently, having already cast a shrinking charm on Yuma’s things and holding Lilly’s tank at arm’s length. Taking Lilly from his sister, then grabbing her proffered arm for side-along apparition, Yuma says, “Let’s go, let’s _go!_ ”

“I was waiting for _you,_ numbskull.”

  
He feels a hooking sensation pull at his navel, tugging him along to Platform 9¾, where the Hogwarts Express was just barely beginning to move, with kids hanging out of the windows and doorways, and Yuma’s going to explode from excitement. An adventure awaits him, and he’s ready to _kattobingu_ everyone’s pants off!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ILY YUMA @TheRank5Ninja its yo boy!!!! i just started watching zexal so pls forgive me as i try to settle into writing his character ty 
> 
> ummmm ive got a couple more scholarships to apply for, and some projects to finish, financial aid to figure out, and ap exams to study for, BUT school is not getting back in for the rest of the year so WOOT virtual graduation it is for me//sarcasm but yeah hopefully ill get some more chapters out soon and we can REALLY get this ball rolling!! yuma and the others need to start their stories afterall ;) 
> 
> thanks again to everyone for reading!!!! <33333333 stay safe, stay healthy, and take care!!!
> 
> OH YEAH AND THANKS SO MUCH FOR 105 KUDOS I LOVE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU <3333333333
> 
> sORRY ONE MORE THING!!! i usually take about a month to update between chapters, so if youre ever looking for another wonderful yutagonist crossover to read, pls check out The Sum of His Parts by klairevoyance!!!!! i dunno how to link it but pls read it if you love theater kids being nerds, drama, coming out stories, and starshipping YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED


	11. (Year 1) Yuya: and im your clone, your strange creation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which the sakaki bros are extremely chaotic, to no one's surprise, AND WE FINALLY HAVE A GIRL!!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pls enjoy!!

“Zuzu?” he asks first.

“ _ Yuya? _ ” she asks next.

Then, at the same time, “What are  _ you _ doing here?”

“I’m…” Yuya Sakaki feels dizzy. His entire life, his parents had told him that he needed to hide magic’s existence from his childhood best friend… and in the end, it turns out that  _ she was a witch too! _ How was that fair?! “I’m trying to go to school, Zuzu…” He points a single, trembling, accusatory finger at her. “...you didn’t tell me you were a witch.”

Zuzu Boyle turns red and crosses her arms. “ _ I _ didn’t know until a few months ago,” she says, then turns a sharp glare on him that makes him flinch and squeak at an embarrassingly high pitch. “What’s  _ your _ excuse, huh? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Yuya’s brother, Yuto, steps forward, hands raised placatingly as he says, “We couldn’t tell you because of the Statute of Secrecy—”

“—who’s to say that  _ we _ knew any sooner than you did, Zuzu, dear?” Yuri, Yuya’s other brother, mimics her pose, grin barely beginning as he teases, “Maybe  _ we’ve _ only known for a few days.  _ You’d  _ be the one keeping secrets, then—” 

Yuto pushes down on Yuri’s head and hisses at him to shut up, and Zuzu sniffs and says, “I can tell when you’re lying, stupid.”

“Oh, but can you, really?” 

“Are you mad?” Yuya asks, giving her his best puppy dog eyes. 

True to form, Zuzu softens and sighs and finally says, “No, I’m not mad. I understand  _ why, _ but it’s annoying.” She pauses, eyes considering Yuya’s mum and (final) other brother, Yugo, as they enthusiastically wave and point at her, and something seems to click in her mind. “Wait, so is  _ Aunt Yoko _ a witch too?!”

“She might not be—”

“—but she is!”

“Interrupting is  _ rude, _ Yuto.”

“So is  _ lying,  _ Yuri,” is his pointed reply. 

“But she like,” Zuzu searches for her words, “she  _ rides a motorcycle.  _ I thought witches were supposed to ride broomsticks.”

Yuya grins. “They usually do. Mum’s just a bonafide rebel.” 

Yuya’s mum comes up behind him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “What’s that you were saying about me, dear?” She turns a kind smile Zuzu’s way. “Hello, Zuzu. What a pleasant surprise to see you here!”

“Yeah! Aunt Yoko, I’m a witch!”

“I can see that,” she laughs. Then she blinks, looking around bewilderedly. “Honey, is your fa—”

“ _ Yokooooo! _ ” Zuzu’s dad, Skip, throws his arms around Yuya’s mum. 

“Oh, there he is!” She says cheerfully as Skip starts to cry into her shoulder. “There, there.”

“Yoko, what do I do?” He looks up at her with watery eyes. “My little girl is  _ leaving  _ me to go to _ magic school!  _ Was the dueltainment lifestyle  _ not enough _ for her?!” 

“They grow up so fast, don’t they?” 

Zuzu stoutly pretends like she doesn’t know him as Yuya pats her on the back.

“Hey,” Yuto says, looking up at Platform 9¾’s giant clock. The time is 10:51. “It looks like the train’s leaving soon. We should probably go find a compartment and put our things away before they all fill up.” He dutifully marches them into the train, hanging back to call, “Yugo! Are you ready to go yet?”

Yugo tears his gaze away from the crowd, tugging his trunk over to his brother and grinning. “Yep! I’m just…” he takes another look around. “Remember how Yuma owled to say that he was coming to Hogwarts? I haven’t seen him around yet.”

Yuto sighs, “That Yuma…” 

The rest of their conversation fades off as Yuri, Yuya, and Zuzu go searching for an empty compartment to put their things in. Most compartments have already been filled by the time their group got to them, although there  _ was _ a compartment somewhere in the middle of the train that had a single boy sitting in it, reading from a rather beat-up book. It was a total bust, though. When asked if they could join him, the boy told them, “No,” without even looking up, and Yuya had to drag a purse-lipped Zuzu away before she could start anything. Yuri, of course, was no help, and was completely content to watch her duke it out with the boy for a spot in his compartment. Yuri whined as they left, but Yuya ignored him, and the rest of their search was mostly uneventful. 

They find an empty compartment near the front of the train and claim it, although they have to sneak around an aggressive-looking group of older kids wearing Gryffindor reds and Slytherin greens to do it. 

“They seem like they’re fighting…” mutters Zuzu, huddling closer to Yuya to avoid being jostled.

“They do that,” Yuri waves her off. “Just don’t draw attention to yourself.”

“Why, though?” She asks while they lug their trunks into the overhead compartments. “Are they, like, rivals or something?” 

She laughs a little as she says this, but stops abruptly when Yuya winces, nodding, and says, “Slytherins… you might wanna stay away from them.”

“What?”

“Yep! Muggleborn like you…” Yuri leans in close to her, making a horrific face with his eyes rolled back and mouth hanging open, “they might just  _ eat you! _ ” 

Zuzu smacks him. 

“ _ Hmph! _ C’mon, Yuya, let’s go say good-bye to our parents.” She turns on her heel and flounces away, ignoring Yuri’s exaggerated moaning. 

“O...okay.”

* * *

“ _ Make sure to  _ **_be Yuya_ ** _ … alright? _ ” are his mother’s parting words to him, and Yuya only has the time to reply, “Huh?” before being whisked away by his brothers and onto the slowly-leaving train. 

“What do you mean, Mum?” He calls out to her. 

She only smiles and calls back, “Be good, boys!” and Yuya pouts. He hates it when she does that. 

“ _ Run, Yuma, go!  _ Morgana, give me strength…” 

Yuya sees a blur of black hair throw a tank up into the air, somersault into the train, and land on its feet, catching the airborne tank and straightening up to become Yugo’s friend, Yuma. 

“Stuck the landing!” he grins, then he blinks. “Oh, hey, Yuya!” The toad in his arms seems completely unperturbed, and blinks slowly at its new surroundings, then directly at Yuya. 

“Did you...just get here…?”

He gave Yuya a sunny thumbs-up. “Yep! Just in time, too!  _ Thanks, Kari! _ ” he yells out the door. 

“ _ Set your alarm  _ **_properly_ ** _ next time!  _ Oh, hullo, Mrs. Sakaki, how are you?”

“I’m well! You’ve grown to be so big since I last saw you, Kari. But are you not going to Hogwarts yourself, luv?”

“Oh, no, I graduated last year…” 

The train gathers speed, their families becoming pinpricks in the distance in a matter of minutes, and Yuma’s already wandered off in search of their compartment while seemingly chattering away to Yuya, who was actually still standing near the doorway, so he rushes to catch up with the shorter first-year. With a closer look, Yuma doesn’t even seem ruffled over the fact that he had been just a hair off of missing the train altogether. Personally, Yuya would’ve taken at least five minutes to let himself stop from hyperventilating after cutting it so close, but he supposes that the other boy probably takes on the “all’s well that ends well” kind of philosophy that easy-going people tended to have. 

His eyes are drawn to the tank under Yuma’s arm and Yuya is, ultimately, very freaked out by Yuma’s toad’s bulging eyes and hastily looks away from the tank and turns his attention toward a glinting gold pendant hanging around the other boy’s neck. “That’s new,” Yuya mutters without really meaning to, but Yuma responds anyway with a sunny beam. 

“Yeah! Isn’t it cool?!” He holds it in his hand, showing off the pendant in all different angles. “I got it last night from my, uh… my parents…” he trails off, scratching at his cheek guiltily. 

Yuya immediately puts on a crooked smile. 

“Sorry—”

“What for?” He says, a little bit too loud. He tugs on his goggles, but thinks better of it and leaves it on top of his hair. “It’s not like I didn’t know that you still have both of your parents. It’s fine!” He throws his smile in Yuma’s direction, steadily turning up its intensity with each passing second. 

“Yuya—” Yuma starts, sounding pained and almost soft, but Yuya doesn’t let him finish, laughing instead. 

He hastily takes the lead. “You should drop your stuff off at our compartment, Yuma, and then we can go, I dunno, stop my brothers from accidentally blowing up the train or something.” 

Silence rings out between them as they swerve between students, before Yuma finally speaks up again. “I’m sorry about your dad,” he says, holding tightly to his pendant. “You know, my parents never thought that he—”

“Just drop it,” Yuya snaps. He feels like kicking himself as soon as he does. “It’s fine,” he repeats, this time more to himself than to Yuma. He smiles again at the other boy, more genuine than the last. “Let’s go find my brothers, okay?” Yuma concedes. 

They actually do find Yuri trying to goad Yugo into doing something that  _ might actually  _ blow up the train while the trolley witch is busy towering (despite her short, grandmotherly stature) over a pair of suitably-terrified Gryffindor twins. Yuto seems to have given up on trying to stop anything from happening, and has instead taken up a hobby of glaring up at the ceiling throughout all of this nonsense, while Zuzu stares helplessly around the compartment. She lights up when Yuya comes back, and Yugo and Yuma do some strange secret handshake and laugh boisterously, some quick introductions are made, they successfully keep Yugo from doing the  _ very explosive _ thing, and —at the end of it all— innocently buy loads of sweets off of the trolley witch when she rolls around to them. 

It’s a good enough train ride, all in all. (And what the trolley witch doesn’t know won’t hurt her.)

* * *

When the groundskeeper (who happens to be very tall and very broad and looks like he might be a giant) collects all of the first-years into a singular group and herds them to the edge of a lake, they find an armada of tiny, wooden boats docked and waiting for them. “Four to a boat! Just four to a boat!” he yells, and Yuya and Zuzu scurry over to claim a boat.

Yuto and Yuri follow behind closely, and Yuya pretends not to notice when they shove Yugo out of their way in order to sit behind him. He also pretends not to notice when Yugo goes teary-eyed and sniffly, looking like he might start arguing when Yuma jubilantly drags him over to another boat with a “Hi! I’m Yuma, and this is my best friend, Yugo!” where one first-year was sitting by himself. (Yuya works  _ extra hard  _ not to notice that they were going to sit with the boy from earlier with the empty compartment… Luckily, Zuzu is too busy trying not to shiver under her robes to take note of her surroundings.)

“Everybody alright? Yeah?” The groundskeeper has taken an entire boat for himself, and it's sinking a little bit under his weight. He nods to himself after a quick look around. “Hold on tight then, would ya?… Onward!” He points a comically tiny, pink umbrella forward, and the boats jerk and begin to glide across the water.

Zuzu squeaks, gripping the side of the boat. “How is it  _ moving? _ ”

“It’s, um… magic?” Yuto says.

“Duh,” adds Yuri. 

“Right, of course,” says Zuzu, sounding faint. “Magic.”

“Magic,” Yuya repeats, grinning. “You might wanna get used to it.” 

But even Yuya could not suppress a small noise of wonder at seeing Hogwarts Castle for the first time. The boats carry them within sight of the castle, whose outline is barely visible against the dark of the sky. The lit-up windows shine like eyes, and Yuya gets the distinct impression that they’re being watched. 

But then, they approach the cliff’s edge, towards an opening covered by thick, hanging foliage, (“Heads down!”) and the castle is quickly hidden from view.

By coincidence, as he ducks down, Yuya catches a glimpse of a large shadow in the water. 

“Don’t worry,” the groundskeeper chuckles when he catches Yuya’s flinch away from the edge of the boat, black pupils sparkling kindly. “That’s just Walker, the Giant Squid.”

A girl with shoulder-length hair stares at the lake curiously. “Why ‘Walker?’ It can‘t walk.”

“Well, that’s because—!” He takes pause, head tilted to the side. “I don’t really know about that one. Hmph! Right, then, here’s the shore.” The boats come to a smooth stop at the edge of the water, though Yuya stumbles on his way out regardless. Luckily, Yuto grabs him before he can fall into the water, but that doesn’t stop Yuya from feeling embarrassed about it. 

The groundskeeper leads them up the path to the castle entrance, where he knocks on a huge, oak front door three times before they are met with a stern-looking, black-haired woman in emerald robes. “The first-years, Professor McGonagall,” he presents. Zuzu whispers over that this was the woman that came to her house to give her her acceptance letter, and Yuya doesn’t know if he should laugh at the image of Zuzu’s dad interacting with the professor, or if he should feel bad for him.

“Thank you, Hagrid,” Professor McGonagall says, nodding her head towards him and letting him pass her by. “I’ll take it from here.” Hagrid sends them one encouraging look over his shoulder, then merrily walks through the giant doors and inside the castle.

She leads them through the Entrance Hall, then through corridors and hidden doorways, past shifting staircases and large suits of armor, and brings them to a stop in front of another giant set of doors. Voices, muffled but chattering quite loudly, come out of the other side as Professor McGonagall gathers them into an alcove. 

She clears her throat, waiting for the last few dredges of nervous muttering to cease before she begins, “Welcome to Hogwarts. The start-of-term banquet shall begin shortly, but I should explain to you first that you will not be sitting at the tables immediately. First, you will participate in a ceremony called the Sorting.

“The Sorting will assign you to the home and community you will have, and find support from, during your time at Hogwarts. You will be given a House, consisting of a group of dorm mates to attend classes with, peers to eat meals with, and… something of a family to spend time with in your House’s common room. Of the Houses, there are four, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each House is designed to put together students of similar qualities, each as honorable as the next, and each of you will be tasked with upholding your House’s pride. For your triumphs, your House will be given points; for your misdemeanors, those points will be taken away. At the end of the year, those points will be tallied up, and the House that has the most points at the end of year will win the House Cup. With that said, however,” Professor McGonagall looks each of them over appraisingly, “I trust that each of you will be a credit to your Houses.

“The Sorting Ceremony will begin in just a few short minutes. Please take this time to tidy yourself up as you see fit.” She clasps her hands together, nods once, then says, “I will return shortly in a few moments.” She enters the Great Hall. 

The first-years break out into frantic whispers. 

“Assign? How are they gonna do that?”

“I heard that it’s some kind of test…” someone murmurs. 

“A TEST?!” someone else says, just loud enough to be heard by everyone else.

All hell breaks loose. 

“What do I do? I don’t know any spells!” says Zuzu, eyebrows knitted together worriedly. A couple of other kids nearby nod frantically in agreement. 

Yuya doesn’t quite get the chance to tell her about the Sorting Hat when he’s yanked aside by his brothers, who are all huddled together away from the group. 

Yuto crosses his arms. “We need to think carefully about what we’re going to tell the Sorting Hat.”

“...we’re still gonna do that?” asks Yuya, scratching his cheek awkwardly. For some reason, his brothers were particularly, er,  _ insistent  _ about wanting to all be in the same House. Yuya supposes that it would be strange to  _ not _ live with them, but… 

“Wha— of course we are!” Yugo’s eyes go wide and almost watery, and Yuya winces. “Why, do you not want to?”

“I-it’s not like I  _ don’t _ —”

“Good!” Yuri claps his hands together primly. “I was thinking that we should all decide what we’re trying to go for, here, while we’re waiting. Like, maybe we could do like the ‘devoted, sweet brothers’ thing? Or, we can aim for ‘fiercely protective and secretly terrified of being apart’? Yuya,” Yuri redirects his (admittedly) creepy smile at him, “what do you think?”

“Uh…” he avoids meeting any of their gazes. “I… don’t know?”

Professor McGonagall chooses that moment to retrieve them from the chamber, and Yuya heaves a sigh of relief as she lines them all up neatly into a single-file. The first-years enter the Great Hall to a sea of robed students staring at them and a single dusty, ripped wizard’s hat sat on a stool. 

Zuzu, standing in front of Yuya, has her head hanging back as she stares up up up at the ceiling above, which reflects the night sky down to every last star. Yuma, however, standing right behind Yuya, is more preoccupied with asking if Yuya thinks the Sorting Hat is a good singer. He watches as it opens its mouth, listens to its first few opening notes, and mutters back a quiet “No.” 

After a few horrendous minutes, the Sorting Hat settles down onto the stool and lets its ripped mouth close back up at the seams; Zuzu also comes to the realisation that her mouth has been hanging open throughout the entire song and hastily shuts it. Yuya snickers at her, but isn’t quick enough to dodge her pigtails as she haughtily faces the front of the room again, and ends up getting a faceful of vengeful pink hair for his crimes. 

Professor McGonagall calls the first student to the stool, and “Belby, Marcus” seems very close to throwing up before the Hat declares him a Ravenclaw. Then, “Bell, Katie,” is Sorted into Gryffindor with a cheerful bounce to her step. She next calls out “Boyle, Zuzu,” who takes a deep breath before marching up to the stool and placing the Hat on her head with a distinct look of determination in her eyes. “GRYFFINDOR!” it finally declares after a few moments, and Zuzu gives Yuya a gleeful wave as she runs to the table filled with students in red-trimmed robes, her own robes slowly turning red at the hems. 

He waves back with a smile, but it fades as “Chang, Chun-hei” is called up to the stool. “Ugh,” he says. 

“What’s the matter?” asks Yuma, concerned. 

“I’m just… not really looking forward to being Sorted, I guess.”

“Wha— why not?”

“Uhh… iiiit’s… a bit hard to explain.” Kind of. It’s a tricky situation. 

They wait in silence until Yugo is called up to the stool, looking slightly stressed about whatever it was that Yuri had whispered to him before he went up, but he successfully sits on the stool without missing it altogether. He takes a seat next to Zuzu at the Gryffindor table a few moments later. 

“Red is  _ so _ not his color,” Yuya hears Yuri mutter as he goes up next. He gets placed in Slytherin, eyebrows furrowing deeply when he shoots a worried look in Yuya’s direction. Yuya sends an encouraging thumbs-up back, and then it’s Yuto’s turn to get Sorted.

Yuto and the Hat spend a couple minutes arguing back and forth before Yuto gets Sorted into Gryffindor with a frustrated sigh. Yuya watches his brother respond to Yuri’s dumbfounded expression with a short shrug, before it’s his turn to take a seat on the stool and jam the Hat firmly onto his head. He sternly blocks out the sound of the other students marvelling at the fact that there were  _ four _ Sakakis coming in this year, because  _ yes, _ he already  _ knows _ , thank you very much. 

_ Ah, _ the Sorting Hat says in his head.  _ So  _ **_you’re_ ** _ the brother. _

Yuya sighs tiredly.  _ Yeah. _

_ That’s hilarious, _ it responds, something of a laugh in its voice.  _ Well, no matter. Let us see here…  _ There came a distinct, uncomfortable feeling of it beginning to rifle through his brain, kind of like it was pulling things out of a filing cabinet… if Yuya’s brain was the filing cabinet.  _ Hm, unwavering loyalty to your friends and family, boundless bravery that most definitely came from your mother, a certain creativity that will favor you should you use it appropriately… it almost seems as though you  _ **_could_ ** _ fit in anywhere if you really wanted to. Though,  _ it pauses briefly,  _ your cleverness could use some work. _

That was vaguely insulting.

_ However, good as you may be in Gryffindor… _ He knows, somehow, that the Hat would be smiling if it could.  _ You don’t  _ **_really_ ** _ want to be there, do you? _

Yuya stiffens, caught red-handed.

_ Yes, I didn’t think so…  _ It quiets, still poking around his brain.  _ Something to do with your dear older brothers, mayhaps? _

And suddenly, Yuya responds in a flurry of not-quite words,  _ They hover over me  _ **_constantly_ ** _ and won’t let me  _ **_do things_ ** _ on my own, and the  _ **_only_ ** _ friend they let me hang around is  _ **_Zuzu_ ** _ , and ever since Dad disappeared they’ve been overprotective and I can’t make  _ **_any_ ** _ other friends without them immediately trying to scare them away, even though they’re not  _ **_all_ ** _ mean! I know that they’re just doing it because they love me, but I’m being smothered alive! Hogwarts is my  _ **_chance_ ** _ , and I can’t take this for another seven years!  _

Of course, Yuya doesn’t have the time to make his thoughts into actual words, but his half-formulated feelings still appear to have gotten the message across as the Sorting Hat replies,  _...interesting.  _ Then, it takes a moment to think, stroking its metaphorical beard before it says,  _ You know. Hufflepuffs pride themselves on the fact that their common room is the only House’s that has never been broken into. It’s very hard to find, if you’re not a badger yourself. You’d certainly be left to your own devices there. And they  _ **_do_ ** _ tend to be a rather friendly group of people, those Hufflepuffs. ...how does that sound, Yuya Sakaki? _

_ …I like it.  _

_ It’s good that you were so honest with me, _ it says, sounding pleased.  _ I wonder, will you continue to be so truthful in the future? ...well, whatever the outcome may be, it seems that you’d be best in… _ “HUFFLEPUFF!” it cries to the rest of the Great Hall, and Yuya hands the Hat off to Professor McGonagall with a beam.

  
Then, from across the room, he hears Yuri yell, “ _ Are you  _ **_freaking_ ** _ kidding me?! _ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hiiii everyone!!! i hope youre all taking care of yourselves!!! remember to drink water, take a break from sitting every thirty minutes, and go to sleep for at least 8 hrs!!!
> 
> hey, so im sure yall have been wondering about ships... i do plan to have them!! so my question for you guys is whether or not i should tag them now or later?? bc a) they really wont be here for a while, b) theyre not a main focus as this is first and foremost a friendship fic, and c) i dont really know if people are okay with knowing endgame ships so early in the fic???? ofc if i do end up including them in the tags, id put them in the additional tags and NOT the relationship tags, bc i dont really want to clog those up when the ships arent super important to the plot (well. besides like one or two.) anyways pls let me know what you think!!!
> 
> oh!! and here are some of the kids' wand types, for the pure hell of it:  
> *Yugi  
> Alder wood and unicorn hair (loyalty, considerate, best-suited towards nonverbal magic, consistent magic tho not very powerful) — 7½ inches, bendy  
> *Jaden  
> Yew wood and dragon heartstring (inclination towards Dark magic, fierce protectors, owners are neither timid nor mediocre, showoffy, affinity for curses and dueling) — 9 inches, rather rigid  
> *Yusei  
> Rowan wood and dragon heartstring (known for strong protection and defensive spells, often placed with the clear-headed and pure-of-heart, most capable of flamboyant spells, learns more quickly than others, somewhat temperamental) — 11 inches, supple  
> *Yuma  
> Maple wood and Veela hair (temperamental, natural travelers and explorers, lack of ambition/challenges cause its natural beauty to fade, new challenges and changes cause it to literally shine/glow(?), mark of status and high-achieving wizards) — 9½ inches, unyielding  
> *Yuya  
> Hazel wood and phoenix feather core (highly in tune with owners emotions so much so that should the owners emotions be in turmoil the wand will malfunction, able to do a wide variety of powerful magic but the owner has to mature into it, the better the owner knows their emotions the better their wand will function, loyal to owner to a fault, strange ability to detect water??) — 14 inches, bendy  
> *Yusaku  
> Pine wood and Phoenix feather (owner is independent and perhaps seen as a loner, accepting of creative uses and variations of spellwork, owners are destined for long lives, sensitive to nonverbal magic, wand is hard to master but once that is achieved caster’s magic is usually amongst the most powerful) — 10 inches, stiff
> 
> (facts about wand woods/cores/lengths/flexibility come from wizardingworld.com, ofc, and harrypotter.fandom.com)
> 
> you guys seem really interested in the direction that this fic is taking, so these are some clues as to where its going, character-wise!!!
> 
> lastly, pls continue to take care of yourselves!!! i hope youll all have a great, amazing, wonderful day!!! and for those who are taking their ap exams next week: YOU GOT THIS!!!! bye!!


	12. (Year 1) Yuma: you done fucked up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which yuma yumas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eugjOQdSm_Y) was my mood while writing this chapter
> 
> thanks for waiting you guys!! i hope you enjoy!!

Yuma had often heard much of Hogwarts, growing up. Kari would come home with chilling stories about the Shrieking Shack and the castle at night that had his mum laughing and countering the stories with anecdotes about sneaking out of Gryffindor Tower after curfew, and his dad would smile and ask Kari how Professor Dumbledore was doing.

So, obviously, Yuma had pictured more adventuring and spellwork, and less… 

He closes another dusty book, then sneezes and accidentally spills ink all over his barely-touched essay.

...schoolwork. Study groups. Homework. Merlin, homework  _ sucks. _

Yuma sighs, cleaning the table with a quick “ _ scourgify _ ” and a lazy swish of his wand. He picks up his roll of parchment paper. It’s almost completely covered in ink, and the two (2) lines of chicken-scratch handwriting that Yuma had actually gotten around to doing were now illegible. “Man.”

“Whoa! What was that?!” Zuzu leans over, eyes sparkling as she closely examines the table, even going so far as to take Yuma’s essay out of his weak hold and squinting at it. 

Katie, sitting next to her, tilts her head. “How come you didn’t clean the ink off of your paper?”

He slumps over tiredly, mumbling in response, “‘s a Scouring Charm. Cleans things. Doesn’t really work well on paper.” Yuma  _ thunks _ his head on the hard surface. “Aw, I’m out of paper too.”

Yugo pats him firmly on the back, smiling slightly as he suggests, “Maybe we can go back up to Gryffindor Tower and ask Yuto if he has a spare roll!” Yuto preferred to do his work on his own in the common room or on his bed in the dormitory, instead of joining the rest of the first-year Gryffindors in the library. 

“Yeah…” And then Yuma would be back on the grind… from dawn to dusk… never seeing the sun again… He jumps out of his seat, yelling, “ _ No! _ I can’t  _ take  _ this anymore!”

“Um?!”

“Yuma?!”

“Goodbye, homework! Goodbye, books!” He sweeps his things into his arms, narrowly weaving around bookcases in his haste. “See you never again, library!”

“Yuma, you can’t do that!” Zuzu calls after him. “It’s only the first week! We still have homework, y’know?!”

“ _ I don’t care! _ ” 

They hear the library doors slam shut with an echo.

A resounding silence follows before Katie giggles, a bit nervously, “He’s a little weird, isn’t he?”

Yugo laughs. “You don’t even know the half of it.”

* * *

Having left the library, Yuma was at a bit of a loss as to what to do next. He wanted to hang out with his friends, but they were all still studying, and if he had to spend one more second surrounded by books, he! Would! Do something! Drastic! 

Maybe he could actually go back up to Gryffindor Tower to see what Yuto was up to… but more than likely, the other boy would be studying too. He probably wouldn’t take too well to being bothered. (Yuto was kind of boring like that.)

“Well,” Yuma says to himself, “the least I could do is drop my stuff off, right?” 

But as he heads up the stairwells, he sees a pair of boys, a Slytherin and a Gryffindor, arguing over something. The Gryffindor, Yuma recognized as a blond second-year who often hung out with his dorm mates in the common room, prone to laughing boisterously when winning a game of chess and grinning good-naturedly when admitting defeat to a game of Gobstones. He’d actually seemed like someone Yuma might’ve been good friends with, but the way that the older Gryffindor was towering over the Slytherin… Yuma can’t bring himself to accept a  _ bully  _ as a friend. 

(Well. Maybe they could be friends  _ later, _ when the blond wasn’t as big a jerk anymore. First things first:) The blond Gryffindor is holding onto a white envelope as he smirks and says, “Oooh, is it from  _ Tea? _ ”

“Give it back, Joey! I mean it!” 

“No, no, I gotta read this!”

“It’s  _ private, _ you absolute  _ arse! _ ” The Slytherin lunges forward, arms outstretched, but Joey just steps to the side. 

“ _ Ahem! _ Let’s see here… ‘Dear Yugi—‘”

“I’m  _ serious! _ ”

_ That’s it _ . 

Yuma drops his things and rolls up his sleeves. He couldn’t just stand around and do nothing! Tsukumos,  _ especially, _ weren’t the type to stand-by when someone needed their help! __

So, he charges in and punches Joey in the face, leaving the older Gryffindor splayed out on the floor. Then, leaning over to grab the letter from his limp grip, Yuma spits, “You should learn to pick on someone your own size!” 

He turns with an apologetic expression to the Slytherin. “Some of the older kids can be really mean for no reason! But, I promise that not all of us Gryffindors are like that! And besides,” Yuma playfully shoulder-bumps him, “us little guys gotta stick together!” Cheerfully, he holds out the retrieved letter without another thought.

The other boy stares at him for a moment, gap-mouthed, then takes back the letter before staring a bit more. Finally, he blurts, “You just knocked him out!” A second later, the boy blinks and says, “Wait, who are you calling _ little?! _ No, wait, no.” He scratches his cheek awkwardly. “Let’s go back to the part where you knocked out my best friend. I… I think there’s been some kind of misunderstanding.”

What. “What?” Yuma says out loud.

“Joey isn’t a bully, is what I’m saying. We’re friends.”

Yuma’s voice comes out strangled and pitched. “Oh.” He clears his throat. “Ahah, that’s weird. I could’ve sworn he was… aw man.  _ Aw man. _ ” He rubs at the back of his head roughly, making his already-messy hair even worse. “I beat up a totally innocent guy!”

“I know. I… just told you that.”

“Merlin!” This is certainly a conundrum. Yuma can’t even begin to figure out how to apologize. It wasn’t like he could say,  _ Sorry I beat up your friend _ , now could he? Or wait… could he? “Uh,” Yuma says. “Sorry I beat up your friend?”

“W-why did you make that sound like a question.”

Suddenly, Yuma is saved from answering by the arrival of a voice! “Wha— Mr Tsukumo! What has happened to young Mr Wheeler?” The ghost of Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington floats toward them in as hurried a manner as one can float whilst dead, seeming rather panicked, which makes  _ Yuma _ think that, well,  _ maybe _ he’s not  _ quite _ off the hook just yet. 

This is proven true when the ghost turns a suspicious gaze upon his Slytherin companion, and Yuma —beginning to panic himself— hurriedly cuts in, “Ah, uh, so, haha, this is Gryffindor’s ghost, Nearly Headless Nick—”

“—I would  _ prefer _ you call me ‘Sir Nicholas de Mim—”

“—aaaand Nearly Headless Nick, this is my friend… uh—” Yuma comes to the realisation that he doesn’t know the other boy’s name. Like, at all. Yuma turns to him with a questioning look and a pleading smile.

The Slytherin takes his cue and steps forward. “It’s nice to meet you. My name is Yugi Mutou. I’m a second-year Slytherin,” he says pointedly, looking at Yuma.

“Whaaat?  _ Really? _ But you’re so small! You’re even shorter than I am!”

Yugi’s smile twitches. “Yes. Really.”

As Yuma let out another “wow” in awe, to Yugi’s increasing twitchiness, Nearly Headless Nick bends over to examine Joey, who was still out cold on the floor. “But the question remains unanswered: however did we get to this point?”

Yuma scratches the back of his head, chuckling nervously. “Um. Well. That’s…” He looks to Yugi for help, but Yugi only raises his eyebrows and waits. Finally, Yuma sighs and says, “I thought I saw him being mean to Yugi, so I —uh— kinda snuck up on him? And that’s why he’s knocked out!”

A beat of silence.

Nearly Headless Nick rubs at the bridge of his nose. “As much as I  _ do _ admire the chivalry of your actions, I will have to inform Professor McGonagall of what has occurred.” He watches as Yuma groans and Yugi hesitantly pats him on the back exactly two times before feeling too awkward to continue, then the ghost sighs. “In the meantime,” he adds, smiling kindly, “I will teach you the Reviving Spell. A bit advanced for your age, but what’s youth without some degree of potential limb loss? Mr Mutou?” He turns to Yugi with an expectant look. 

Yugi, face pale, raises his hands. “I don’t think that’s such a great idea, sir. I’m failing Charms.”

“I’ll do it!” Yuma volunteers. The ghost shrugs in acceptance, and with Nearly Headless Nick’s careful instruction, Yuma points his wand at Joey and yells, “ _ Renneverate! _ ”

* * *

“Yugi! Joey!” The two friends, who had been on their way to meet up with their other friends at the usual spot, turn to see Yuma run up to them, grinning. “Hey! Sorry again for what happened the other day!”

Before Yugi can say anything, Joey smirks and says, “Don’t think you’re getting off  _ that _ easily.”

Yuma’s jaw drops. “ _ Huh? _ But I apologized!”

“Not good enough! Carry my books for me, scrub.”

“No way! This is mean!”

“That’s interesting, because you know what  _ else  _ is mean? Oh right!  _ Beating up an innocent person! _ ”

Yugi considers the first-year Gryffindor for a second as the two begin arguing, then cuts in, “Say, Yuma. Do you wanna join us? We were thinking of playing a game.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I KNEW I WOULD JINX MYSELF JFC sorry for the rather short and rather lame chapter :( i got sidetracked, everything's really weird rn, and i kept forgetting exactly what it was i wanted out of this chapter ^^;; but its here!!!! hopefully ill get back into the swing of things before school starts up again,,,, we'll see!! stay safe everyone, and remember to wear your masks over your mouth AND nose pls!!!


	13. (Year 1) Yuya: is anybody waving back at me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which yuya's, like, kind of adjusting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warnings for some vague and unintentional ableism on the part of some kids who should really know better, but alas
> 
> pls enjoy!!
> 
> o yea, if you don't already know, fuck jkr this is my turf now

Things keep blowing up in Yuya’s face.

He pokes at the innocent white feather sitting on his desk.  _ Okay, Yuya, swish and flick. You can do that, right? _ He gulps.  _ Probably.  _ He picks up his wand, swishes and flicks, and says, voice wobbling, “ _ Wingardium Levio—! _ ”

Literally. 

He’s starting to not like magic so much. 

“Mr Sakaki!” Professor Flitwick exclaims, and Yuya winces. He thanks his lucky stars for a moment that his brothers aren’t around to relay the event to Zuzu, who would definitely laugh (not maliciously, but the point still stands), but then he catches the eye of a green-haired Ravenclaw girl and  _ she  _ gives him the most unimpressed look he’s ever seen in his life, and yeah, Yuya kinda wants to die now. (It’s worse because --not that he’ll ever say anything about this to Zuzu, and  _ definitely _ not this other girl-- she almost looks like Zuzu. And that look of disapproval, that upturn of the nose… ooh, that stings.) Professor Flitwick, not noticing his inner desire to sink into the floor, hands him another white feather. “Please be sure to practice your pronunciation a bit further before attempting to cast a second time.”

Yuya musters up a wide grin for the audience and stands. “Sure thing, Prof! I’ll try not to be such a,” he picks up Tori’s feather nearby through her anticipatory giggles, “ _ bird-brain _ about it next time!”

The class erupts into laughter. (Noticeably, though, the green-haired Zuzu-not doesn’t seem all that amused.)

Flitwick sighs. “Mr. Sakaki—”

(Maybe he needs to turn it up a notch.)

“Sorry, did that one not  _ quack _ you up? I guess it wasn’t that great,” Yuya shrugs theatrically, “after all, I was just  _ winging _ —”

“Mr. Sakaki, please see me after class,” says Professor Flitwick tiredly, cutting him off, and the other first-years gasp and  _ ooh _ at him. Yuya is frozen for a second before he sits back down. 

not-Zuzu smirks at him. 

Yuya sinks into his seat, pulls on his goggles. “Didn’t mean to ruffle your feathers,” he mutters under his breath. He suffers through some thirty-something minutes of his classmates laughing at him while he tries not to blow up another Levitation Charm, then —at the end of a hellish block— slouches reluctantly up to the front of the room. 

To his surprise, he finds himself standing next to a tall Ravenclaw boy who nods at him, but otherwise doesn’t give him much more than a passing glance. Instead, the Ravenclaw seems much more focused on his shoes. For a second, Yuya wonders why he looks so familiar until —in a single moment of striking revelation— he realizes that it’s the same boy from the train who Zuzu had tried to fight.  _ Yikes, _ he thinks, and leaves the matter alone. 

Professor Flitwick levels them both with an uncharacteristically stern gaze. “Mr. Fujiki and Mr. Sakaki. It’s come to my attention that both of you have been having… unusual amounts of trouble for the last few days. Being new wizards, a couple of problems here and there are to be expected as you adjust to channeling and controlling your magic through a wand, but not quite to the extent that you’ve both exhibited. Frankly, I’m at a loss for what to do.” Yuya cringes. He doesn’t sound mad, which is good. Mostly, he just sounds confused. Yuya thinks he’d probably cry if, Merlin forbid, Flitwick had been  _ disappointed _ . 

“I’d like to spend some time working individually with you boys, if that’s alright. Of course, Mr. Sakaki, I’m not your Head of House, but Professor Sprout has been kind enough to give me the ‘okay’ to tutor you.” Then he adds, tapping on his chin, “If worse comes to worse, we may have to get your wands examined by Mr. Ollivander… Well. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, yes?” Neither of the first years answer, but it seems that their response wasn’t needed. “Please make sure to come see me an hour before your Charms block each day from now on.”

Fujiki nods. “Is that all?” he asks. He’s still looking at his shoes. 

“Yes. You’re both dismissed.”

He nods again, leaves immediately, and Yuya’s staring after him. What a weird guy. 

He makes to follow before being stopped by Flitwick just outside the door. “Oh, and Mr. Sakaki?”

“Yeah, Prof?”

Professor Flitwick gives him a look from over the top of his glasses. “It would do you well to refrain from making a fool out of yourself in my class again, young man. You have a lot of potential,”  _ oh no, here it comes, _ thinks Yuya, beginning to hunch over into himself, “to become a great wizard. It’d be a shame to see you waste that.”

The Hufflepuff is silent for a moment, then he pastes on a bright smile. “Well, about becoming a great wizard… Magic’s fun and all, but I’m finding that it’s just not for me! So instead, I’m gonna be a,” he strikes a pose, “dueltainer! No,” he strikes another pose, “the  _ best! _ The best of the best! Just like my dad!”

The professor takes on a reproachful expression and shakes his head. “Like your father… I suppose I can’t stop you,” he says, and Yuya grins and nods, turning to leave, “but I should hope at least  _ one  _ of you takes after your mother…” 

Wow, okay. Now this  _ has  _ to be the worst Yuya’s felt all day. And considering it’s just past 11 o’clock, that could be a new record!

Yuya lets the door slam shut behind him. 

Outside of the classroom, two Ravenclaw girls are huddled together and giggling, and Yuya sees that one of the girls is the green-haired Zuzu look-alike who  _ definitely _ does  _ not _ like him. He goes out of his way to give them a wide berth of space, but the blue-haired one calls out to him anyway.

“Rio, don’t talk to Clown Boy!” hisses not-Zuzu, getting waved off by her friend, who says, “Sakaki! Hey, come over here!”

“...why?” he asks, slowly, against his better judgement. Giggling girls that didn’t like you never meant well.

Rio smiles beatifically at him. “I saw your Levitation Charm in class earlier! Haha,” she claps her hands together, and finishes, without a hint of malice in her tone, “gee, that kinda sucked!”

not-Zuzu starts cackling. Yuya dies a little on the inside and responds with a faint, “Thanks.”

“Oh,” Rio blinks, looking from him to her friend, still cackling. “Oh, I didn’t mean that to be rude.” ( _ She  _ **_didn’t_ ** _?!)  _ “Just as an observation.” (And yet, Yuya was still offended.) “Rin, quit laughing.”

“Nah, no way, princess. That was just too good.” not-Rin, whose actual name was Zuzu— no, Zuzu, whose not-name was R— (that wasn’t it, either.) Rin wipes a tear from her eye mirthfully. 

Rio rolls her eyes fondly, then turns to Yuya. “As hilarious as your spell turned out, I’d like to offer my assistance as an attempt to avoid bodily harm during the next Charms class.”

Yuya blinks, not quite processing what she’s said. “What?” he asks.

“She’s asking to tutor you so you don’t end up killing anyone, genius,” Rin monotones. 

“I got that, actually.”

“Really, now.”

“Yeah.”

“Rin,” says Rio, a note of warning in her tone before her friend could do anything else. Rin, to her credit, only shrugs and settles her back against the wall. “So, what do you say, Sakaki?”

Yuya winces. “It’s not like I don’t appreciate the offer, but…”

“But what?” demands Rin. “Bro, this is Rio  _ Kastle _ that’s offering to tutor you, okay? Like,  _ the _ Kastles—”

“Wha— Rin, you don’t know anything about wizarding families—”

“—I know enough!  _ God. _ ” Rin brushes loose strands of green hair out of her face with an over dramatic flourish. “In any case, Rio’s  _ really _ smart and she’s great at magic,  _ and _ she’s  _ my  _ best friend so you already know she’s like, at _ least _ 43-percent cooler than you. I just can’t think of a good reason for why you’d say no!”

Why was everyone so intent on tutoring him, anyways? It’s getting embarrassing. “Professor Flitwick’s already assigned me to remedial studies with him. Oh,” he adds after a moment, “and Fujiki. He’s been having some problems too.”

Rio blinks. “Yusaku? He’s having trouble? I wouldn’t have expected that from him…”

“Yeah… he’s in your House as well, isn’t he?”

The two Ravenclaw girls share a look. “Well, yes,” says Rio. “But he’s a bit…” She trails off. 

“He’s kind of weird,” Rin finishes. “He’s, like,  _ really _ weird. And a bit of a loner.” Rio makes a face, but nods in agreement anyways. 

Not that Yuya hadn’t gathered that from the, er,  _ everything _ about the other boy, and he says as much. “Not to worry!” Rio assures him. “I’m sure he’s a nice person.”

“I’m  _ not _ so sure about that.”

“ _ Rin. _ ”

“I’m just saying! I think he’s a standoffish arse.”

Which is just great for Yuya. Really, it is. He’s honestly having  _ so _ much fun at magic school. He  _ absolutely  _ needed to be paired off with the weird, rude kid. It’s wonderful. (This is actually sarcasm, and a complete and utter lie.) Seeing the way Yuya’s face drops, Rio smiles tightly at him. “Well. Good luck!”  _ You’re on your own _ , is what  _ that  _ means. 

“Yeah. Thanks.”

* * *

His horrid magic skills and the Yusaku Problem aside, Yuya’s having a grand old time being a student at Hogwarts. For the most part, he’s glad to be considered  _ Yuya Sakaki, the first-year Hufflepuff _ and not  _ Yuya Sakaki, the youngest of the Sakaki clan _ (or, Morgana forbid,  _ Yuya Sakaki,  _ **_Yusho’s_ ** _ son _ , with an upturn twist of the upper lip.) He likes being an individual— he likes being his own person. He likes being “one of the ickle firsties.”

And Hufflepuff is just such a strange House to be in, full of strange people to surround oneself with. One of the prefects had told them, that first night at Hogwarts, “A lot of people don’t expect much from us badgers, but we’ve been able to break into other Houses without retaliation. Can the Gryffindors say that they’ve sat on our squishy cushions? No, they can’t. But  _ I’ve _ personally slid down Gryffindor stairwells more times in the last term than I have fingers and toes. Er,” she’d added, “don’t tell Professor Sprout I’ve done that, by the way. Supposed to be setting a good example, and all.”

The Hufflepuffs like to have their secrets. They slip between hidden passages, behind false walls, step into paintings that are actually doorways in disguise. Rumors spread like wildfire amongst the Hufflepuffs, but they’ll tease the coveted gifts above the heads of nosey Slytherins and Ravenclaws and particularly loud-mouthed Gryffindors without breathing a word of what those gifts contained. Secret-keeping is just what the Hufflepuffs do best. And the most coveted secret of all? 

Well, that was called “the Sett.”

The Sett was a series of underground tunnels, the entrance to which was hidden under a loose floorboard (or four) in the middle of the common room. For each wix, there was an individualized space carved out for them to use however they liked, that by way of various charms and enchantments, no one else could ever find. It was a place to be hidden, and not followed. A private area, if one so wished, or a large gathering area, away from the prying eyes of Hogwarts’s walls. 

As far as Yuya knows, Bronk takes naps in his, Tori studies in hers whenever she needs a quiet space, and Cedric, when the second-year was nice enough to explain, mentioned using his for extra Seeker practice before tryouts. Bobby, though, when asked, only gave the younger boy a mysterious smile.

Yuya uses his to contemplate his Odd-Eyes Dragon. 

See, Yuya plays a  _ Performapal  _ deck. He always has. It could be said that the Odd-Eyes card shares a color scheme with the rest of his deck, but that was really where the similarities ended. There’s little reason for him to have it, aside from the fact that the card had some pretty good effects; yet, he feels a connection to it that makes it hard to part with. It’s not like he’s complaining about it, but it was a strange card all the same. 

Stranger was the look that his father had given it when it’d first appeared. Yuya hadn’t the chance to ask before he left, but that look —he remembered— had made him uneasy, so he keeps the card hidden and sequestered away from the other students. He thinks… that that might be the right thing to do. He thinks that that’s what his father would want him to do.

Still, it’s nice to sit on the cushions in his part of the Sett and imagine all the ways that he  _ could  _ use it in a Duel. 

So, Yuya has his secrets, too. He kind of hopes he’ll be able to share it with someone someday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yuya’s narration in this chapter sounds an awful lot like early 2000s fanfic, which wasn’t my intention?? but he demanded it, and so it became orz (deadass next thing you know he’ll be popping up in the authors notes or smth smh,,,,,,,,,,,)
> 
> btw, the Sett concept is mine, i made that up, if you look it up youll get a bunch of info on badger dens but nothing from pottermore or anything lol so if it doesn't seem too well put together thats why!!!
> 
> i meant to get this chapter uploaded a couple hours ago, but i ended up oversleeping and missed like ten minutes of my first class :v we were just going over the syllabus, so its fine, but thats not an ideal way to start off a quarter now is it lol ANYWAYS im sorry its been taking so long to get out new chapters!!! the second gen kids just wont cooperate, no matter how much i pour affection onto them :(((( next chapter we'll be back to yusei and hopefully itll go well???? okay i have to log into my english class now orz
> 
> thanks for reading, lovelies!!!! stay tuned, stay safe, and stay radical!!!


	14. (Year 2) Yusei: time to put on your clown makeup, kid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which crushes are discussed and yusei finally gets to try out for the quidditch team!!!! oh, and he gets stick-bugged lol

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dkla;fjdklaj i wanted to get this out two weeks ago aaaaaaaa i hope you all enjoy anyways ;w;
> 
> there's an announcement at the end of the chapter!!!!!!! just wanted to let you all know, hehe

A finger pokes at the crease between Yusei’s eyebrows. “Aren’t you frowning a little too much, Yus’?” asks Jaden, retracting his finger. “Like, more than usual?” 

Yusei looks at him. “I don’t frown that often.”

“But you’re doing it right now.”

“Well, that’s because I’m mad.”

“ _ Wow! _ ” Jaden stares at him with fascination. “An angry Yusei in its natural habitat!” He ignores the way Yusei’s face goes deadpan and prattles onward, “Haha, you look like such a sourpuss! What are you so mad about, anyways?”

The Ravenclaw slows to a stop at that, his friend walking several more paces ahead before realizing he was gone. When Jaden turns around with raised eyebrows, Yusei asks, “Aren’t  _ you _ mad?  _ Shouldn’t  _ you be?”

“Huh? About what?”

“Dr Crowler!” The new Defence professor's had it out for Jaden ever since the first day, and, quite frankly, he treated Jaden like  _ shit.  _ And for what reason? Because the second-year has been late  _ once _ , on the  _ first day? _

It’s completely infuriating. 

However—

“Oh, yeah!” Jaden has the gall to  _ laugh _ , carefreely placing his hands behind his head and letting his book bag knock against Yusei’s shoulder. “That guy’s a total stick in the mud, that’s for sure.”

Yusei shakes his head. “That’s not the point! It’s not fair for him to treat you that way!”

“Mm, I don’t know.” The Gryffindor stares upward with a thoughtful look. “It’s not any worse than how Snape treats Yugi.”

“...so, Professor Snape is giving Yugi a hard time as well…” 

Jaden pats him once, hard, on the back. “Well! Try not to worry about it too much! Yugi’s a tough guy!”

“Mm.”

Despite Jaden’s boundless amounts of energy, Yusei remains fixed on his friends’ problems with their teachers until Lee Jordan calls out to them from the other end of the hallway. “Oi, Jaden! Fudou! Come over here!”

He, along with the Weasley twins and —strangely enough— Yusei’s Housemate, Patricia, is crouched down by the entranceway, seemingly unaffected by the brisk September air. Patricia coos at something as Yusei and Jaden approach, and one of the Weasley twins pokes out a finger only to have her bat the offending appendage away. 

“What is it, Lee? You weren’t in class today…” Jaden strokes his chin. “Come to think of it, neither were the twins? What are you guys up to?”

_ So he noticed something like that? _ Yusei thinks to himself. Well. It was good that Jaden was paying attention in class today.

Even if what he took note of wasn’t necessarily  _ relevant _ to anything they’d learnt. 

So caught up was Yusei in these thoughts of his that he doesn’t notice the phasmid-like creature that Lee Jordan holds out to them until it’s just inches away from his nose, and Yusei goes deathly still. 

The Gryffindor, smiling and completely unaware of Yusei’s internal screaming, says, “Look, it’s a bowtruckle! Haha, it’s like a little stick that has legs. Neat, right?”

“ _ Whoa! _ ” Jaden leans down for a closer look. “Hey there, lil’ buddy!” He offers up his index finger to the bowtruckle. “How’re ya doing?”

The bowtruckle glances at the proffered finger, then up at Jaden’s smiling face. It places a tiny limb on his finger. Jaden’s eyes start  _ sparkling.  _

“Yusei!  _ Yusei! _ It’s  _ shaking _ my  _ hand!  _ Yusei, are you seeing this?!”

The bowtruckle turns to Yusei, tilts its tiny head to the side. Its various green parts twitch in creepy, frenetic movements. Was it just him, or were its eyes strangely malevolent? He suppresses a shudder. 

Patricia blinks, then quickly casts a  _ tempus _ . She gasps at the time. “Oh no! I have to bring Twiggy back to Professor Grubbly-Plank before Transfiguration! Aah, please hand him over!”

“Oh, okay.” Lee Jordan lifts up his index finger to the creature, high-fiving it. “See you around, guy!” He hands it over to Patricia’s waiting hands. “Be safe out there!”

“You talking to me, or Twiggy?” she calls over her shoulder.

“Twiggy, obviously!” 

Patricia laughs, robes flying out behind her as she heads to the greenhouses. Yusei finally lets out a sigh of relief. He looks at the other second-years, vaguely unimpressed. “You skipped class to hang out with a bowtruckle?”

The twin standing on Lee Jordan’s right elbows him solidly in the arm. “And a  _ girl _ ,” he adds, smirking all the while. 

Eyes narrowed, Jordan pinches his mouth and hisses, “Shut  _ up _ , Fred!”

The other twin —George, presumably— pats his friend on the shoulder cheerfully. “Don’t worry! There’s nothing wrong with having a crush!” 

Lee Jordan shakes them both off with a grunt before turning to Yusei and Jaden to explain. “Stimpson was asked to do some sketches of the bowtruckle for Professor Grubbly-Plank, and then  _ she  _ asked  _ me _ for help. I don’t know what’s  _ their _ excuse.” He juts his chin out in the twins’ direction, who both take to whistling innocently. His eyes turn wide, then, and slightly pleading when they land on Yusei. “Say, you don’t happen to know if she’ll be… trying out for the quidditch team or anything this year…? Not— not that it  _ matters _ , really,” he says, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. “Sh-she was just— talented when we played together last year, so I was wondering…” 

“See,” says Fred, sliding an arm around Jordan, “Lee, here, is planning on taking over for Murphy McNully from last year — you remember McNully? Quidditch commentator?” Yusei nods. Jaden shakes his head. “Ah, well, he could talk faster in a second than you could throw him and that wheelchair of his. Anyways, he graduated last year, and the commentator seat is empty—”

“—big shoes to fill, there, Fred.” George nods his head agreeably.

“They sure are, George!”

Then, in unison, the twins ask, “So,  _ can he do it? _ ”

“All signs point to yes… with the right motivation,” finishes Fred with a wiggle of his eyebrows. The Weasley twins turn, fixing their gazes firmly onto Yusei, who jolts at the sudden attention. “Well, Fudou?  _ Is  _ Patricia trying out for the Ravenclaw quidditch team?”

At that, Yusei thinks for a moment. “She hasn’t mentioned anything, as far as I can recall…”

“Oh, but,” says Jaden, grinning at the Ravenclaw, “ _ Yusei’s _ planning on trying out, right?”

Yusei blinks. “Right.”

Fred, George, and Lee Jordan exchange a look amongst themselves. Jordan strokes his chin. “ _ Really, _ now. Interesting.”

George crosses his arms, eyes narrowed. “ _ Very _ interesting.” 

Yusei feels himself start to sweat. 

“Why,  _ George… _ ” Fred mimics his brother’s pose as a wild smirk settles on his face. “It seems as though we may have to face off against our dear Yusei…”

“No hard feelings, Yus’—“

“—but it seems like we’ll be enemies from here on out—“

“—gotta protect the House honor, after all—”

“—that’s just how it goes!”

“But,” says Jaden, starting to stare curiously upwards, “weren’t  _ we _ honorary Ravenclaws that one time? Remember, Fred?” He strokes his chin, a striking comparison between him and a wise, old sage flashing across Yusei’s mind. “Wouldn’t that make you and Yusei  _ allies _ , and not enemies?”

“That’s completely different!”

“Wha—  _ How? _ ”

“It just is!”

As Jaden and Fred start bickering, Yusei turns back to George and the very bemused Lee Jordan, considering. “Enemies, huh…” 

The two look at him with raised eyebrows. 

“Well.” He sets his jaw, lets a tiny smirk make its appearance. “Let’s just say, I’m not afraid of a bit of competition.”

* * *

That weekend finds Yusei gripping one of the school’s Cleansweep 7’s tightly between gloved hands while waiting for the Ravenclaw team to arrive. It looks like it might rain. From across the Quidditch Pitch, some older Ravenclaws eye him with a certain glint that he’s starting not to like very much. 

He’s not feeling quite so confident anymore.

He takes a breath. Concentrates. Clears his mi— 

“HI YUSEI!”

Yusei sighs. “Hi Joey.”

His friends come to a stop in front of him, Joey and Jaden having strong-armed Yugi and Syrus into racing down to the Quidditch Pitch. The two Gryffindors had each linked arms with those of the shorter second-years and pulled them into a hard sprint across the grounds that left Yugi looking faint and swaying on his feet while Syrus was bent over, gasping for breath. Jaden, completely unrepentant, lets out bright laughter as he pats Syrus solidly on the back. 

Yusei lifts his eyebrows, looking at Joey, who only gives him an expectant smile. 

“Joey.”

“Uh-huh?”

“What are you guys doing here?”

“Ye— what're we  _ doin’ _ here?” asks Joey incredulously. “Yusei! You’re our buddy! We came to cheer you on!”

“Cheer me on…?” His other friends grinned at him, Yugi and Syrus both shaking off their fatigue to give him a thumbs-up. “You didn’t have to do that.”

Syrus rolls his eyes. “Here he goes,” he says to Jaden, as if Yusei’s not standing  _ right there _ . “We  _ wanted _ to come, Yusei.”

“Now would be the time to say, ‘thank you,’” teases Yugi, giving the Ravenclaw a good-natured poke in the chest. 

“You guys…” Yusei smiles at them. “Thank you.”

Syrus cuts the moment short with, “Great! Next, you should add something about how handsome your friends are and how grateful you are to have th—”

“You’re starting to push it too far.”

“Wh—”

“Are we interrupting something?”

Yusei startles, spinning to find the source of the voice and coming face-to-face with Yusaku. “Ah, so you came, too, Yusaku?” 

The younger Ravenclaw blinks at him. “Yes. Chun-hei is interested in trying out for the quidditch team next year, so we came to watch.”

Chun-hei, another first-year Ravenclaw, softly pipes up from behind his shoulder, “He also wanted to give you his best wishes! Isn’t that right, Yusaku?” Yusaku stoutly ignores her.

Yusei grins and ruffles his hair. “Thanks, Yusaku.”

He nods, then firmly brushes Yusei’s hand off. 

A whistle sounded around the pitch, magically amplified by Madam Hooch’s wand. Roger, with the other Ravenclaws on the other side of the field, calls Yusei’s name. “Coming!” he shouts back. 

“Ah, we should get going…”

“Let’s sit over there!”

“Oh, cool, Fred and George and Lee are here too.”

“So  _ you‘re _ Yusaku! It’s nice to finally meet you!”

“...”

“Yusaku…”

“Hey, Yusei.” When he looks over his shoulder, Jaden is holding out a fist to him. “Do your best! Kick their butts!”

They bump fists. “Of course,” says Yusei, then Jaden’s nodding and running off to join the rest of their friends in the stands. 

Yusei takes a final moment to breathe in crisp autumn air once he reaches the other Ravenclaws, letting an anxious coil in his stomach spread out and morph into excitement and anticipation. He looks to the stands and spots Fred giving him a two-fingered salute, then Syrus waving excitedly, and Yusaku watching him intently. Yusei runs his hands over the wood of his broomstick, his fingernails catching on various dips and ridges. Madam Hooch brings her whistle to her lips. 

“Ready?” whispers Roger from beside him. 

Yusei glances at the sky. It looks calm. “Ready.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO ALL!!! first off, let me cry-type for a bit alskdl;j thank you for such a pleasant year you guys!!!! all this has been hard for everyone, and i really appreciate everyone whos been around to support my silly fic ;w; WE'RE AT 206 KUDOS RN THAT'S SO EXCITING AH;LASDJKS i love every single one of you 😭😭
> 
> *claps hands together* and we are approaching that one year mark!!!! idk if you guys realize, but that's a really big deal for me!!! i almost never stick with fics for this long (my attention span be short af//) and a lot of this is bc of your constant support. thank you so much!!! so, as thanks, i wanted to ask if you guys had any oneshot requests for the "sir, this is a card game" universe (aka the ✨harry potter cinematic universe✨ lol). i can't promise that i'll get to all of them or that any of them will be over a thousand words (since college is kicking my ass OTL,,,,,,,, and i've also signed up to do some cool things for the death note fandom this winter!!!) but i just wanted to let you know!!!
> 
> and hey!!! feel free to just like talk to me!!! OwO comment sections have been the majority of my human-to-human interactions since quarantine started, so i'm feeling a bit antsy, as you could probably imagine. only if you want to tho!!! don't feel pressured!!!!!
> 
> [tumblr](https://cat-soda.tumblr.com/)  
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/cheakvsea)
> 
> AND THATS IT!!!! i hope youre all staying safe!!!! pls take care of yourselves and have a good day!!!! <333333333 *runs off to do hw*

**Author's Note:**

> so I got into ygo recently, and I like immediately dropped everything (including my sphp fic,,,,, sorry) to write this BC BONDS BEYOND TIME WAS SO CUTE AND YGO7s IS COMING OUT AND WHERES MY BBT2????? so I had to write smth with all the protags!! And yes!!! They’ll all be here in due time!! I’m just a lazy writer, so I have a bunch of hcs but like only one other chapter lol
> 
> I figure bc I still need to watch the other series that I would just hop around the timeline and not update in chronological order, but that might get hard.... we’ll see how this goes!! (EDIT: THIS IS NO LONGER TRUE THERE IS A PLOT AND THE CHAPTERS ARE IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER. THANK YOU.) Pls enjoy!!


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